The Plague
by Peter J Marcroft
Summary: Chapter 6 online! As news of the assault in the north filters through, relations in Garden are tested to their limits. But a revelation from within brings new hope for the quarantined SeeD's. Please read and review
1. Quarantine

Chapter 1 - Quarantine

The leader sat in his high backed seat on the deck high above Balamb garden. The school felt strange to the man, at that moment it was still as a mountain. Yet the Commander remembered it once thundering over the horizon, in an instant he had set the garden free of the chains. The Centa built shackles which had held it in place under the mountain side, torn asunder as an act of desperation to save their home from obliteration at the hands of Sorceress Edea.

A faint smile touched his lips then, Sorceress Edea, while a woman possessed of great power. Had shown how little control she had held over herself during that time of war. Unbeknown to SeeD, a silent future foe, Ultimecia, claimed a reign of power beneath the mask that was Edea Kramer.

Squall felt a sudden urge to rise from his seat and visit the training centre. A desire to witness the focus of his woman, to see her learning to control the craft at the hands of Edea. Who could better train a sorceress for the tasks she was to face than another sorceress? Many had questioned his order, but Squall's authority was absolute. Not only was Ultimecia vanquished from their world, but Edea had long since proven an invalubal ally. A totally different experience from when she had been the deadliest of foes.

The thought of authority crossed the figure's mind once more, spinning the chair around, the eighteen-year old Garden Commander arose from his leather throne. Standing by himself at the corner of the bridge he looked out across the world, here he was at peace and in control. The frosted glass supplied him with fragmented and broken images of the world around Balamb, a sign that winter still claimed them.

Thoughts of a cold world brought back images of the compressed reality SeeD had been dispatched to investigate. If there was any mission that still haunted him, then it was that one. The whole task was a journey out of existence and into a netherworld. Everything that the people recognised and held affinity with, had been ripped apart by Sorceress Ultimecia, an enemy totally devoid of remorse.

It still made no sense to Squall, in the moment where he drove the blade of lionheart into her body, he had vanquished the time compressor, but did that mean that she was truly dead? If he killed the future, had he killed the past? Such questions had made him lose his way and alone he had drifted in an empty world, only to be saved by the touch of Rinoa's love.

The urge to see her rose further, but he repressed it, he was the Commander and until the night fell, he had to remain in play. Squall chuckled as he looked back at the spot where the transgression had occurred. The floor of the upper chamber had been decorated with tribal symbols, lines that had seemed incongrous and meaningless to the SeeD as he had trudged across them.

Once he was on the lift and aboard the bridge proper, Cid Kramer, former commander of Garden, had broadcast how the Garden needed a leader of focus for the upcoming mission against the sorceress.

Squall had been incensed, given no control and no choice in the decision, he had been forced into a change that day. Instead of simply following orders, as he had been trained so resolutely to do. The SeeD was forced to give them, and accept all the ramifcations that went with it. Most had assumed that once the mission was over, life would return to normal and Cid would reassume power. The ageing firgure had, however, declined. He told them all how Squall had done magnificently and that no one else could lead with such focus and control. The man in command of Garden needed to be someone who could gain the most from the students, despite Squall's thoughts on the matter, he was born to do such a role.

Instantly his mind was ripped from the past when the sound of an emergency communication blasted across the bridge. The commander leapt into the swivel chair and spun it around to face the large screen of the bridge. Mind ablaze with what the report might contain.

"Main screen!" Instantly the plump figure of the Garden's Head Doctor, Kadowaki, filled the screen. Large bags formed under her eyes and her skin seemed sunken, as if placed under great stress. "Make your report Doctor, priority 1-A." Squall commanded instantly.

_"We have a situation sir. The infirmary is currently being locked down and we need you on site immediately."_

Squall frowned. "Why was I not informed of a lockdown? And why does it seem like you are keeping something from me?"

_"I apologise sir and accept full responsibility, but the nature of the situation meant that I had to keep it black box until we could gain a full understanding."_

"I am on my way now, prepare a full report for my arrival, out." Despite the heavy words and cocky posture, Squall, inside, was a wreck. Something in the Garden was deeply amiss, a situation so grave that all order had been jetisonned. Whatever had made Dr Kadowaki look dreadful had forced her to act unprofessionally... He had never seen her that way before.

* * *

The elevator arrived at the first floor with a jarring thud, the platform shook slightly before finally all motion ceased. Through the darkened glass doors, the Garden Commander watched a group of students gathering at the centre of the hall. Taking a deep breath he prepared a statement in his mind, something that would at least disperse them for a short while. Once satisfied, the leader stepped from his protective glass shell and out onto the stairwell before it.

"All students at attention!" He barked, the nervous teenagers all adopted salutes at the unexpected command. "As you seem to be aware we have a situation at hand at the moment, for now all information is being restricted in order that a full brief can be made later on." He strode forward and looked over the morass of bodies set before the stairs. "All of you here wish to be a SeeD, correct?" A mass roar shattered his ear drums. "Well in order to become SeeD, you must be aware that we have a chain of command. In this instance I am the chain, you are the links, and I am ordering you all to resume studies and training purposes! Any information that is deemed privy to you all, will be made via a full report later on this afternoon. Dismissed!" The group chanted 'Yes sir!' Then saluted, before slowly filing away from the hall.

Once alone, the young figure walked in the direction of the infirmary, Doctor Kadowaki had told him that the wing was being locked down. It was good fortune though it created murmurings of rumours. Rumours he could hardly ignore until fully briefed, yet if this situation was as grave as the Doctor feared, then any measure to prevent panic would be necessary.

The corridor was no longer open, instead of being a simple bridge over the surrounding water, it had now become a fortress. Thick metal shutters had entombed the aisle like armour and a heavy fire door barred any access. Remembering the protocol for lockdown, Squall walked up to the communicator.

"Priority overide, code SL-GH-69." Squall voiced calmly into the transmitter.

_"Scanning... Scanning..."_ The system bleethed as it went through the databank. _"Identity matched, Code SL-GH-69, Leonhart, Squall, Garden Commander. Opening..."_

Muttering under his breath at the slow procedure, the young swordsman waited for the shutter to open fully. It drifted upwards like a castle portculis and slowly light filtered through from within, a light corona that was sharp on the retinas at first.

Adjusting swiftly, he looked to the left and saw that hanging from a long rail, were many rubber suits, complete with helmets and oxygen packs. Relieved this part of protocol had been actioned, Squall reached for a hazmat suit.

As he clambered into the awkward garb, Squall's mind flew back to the time of the space incident. Many miles above Esthar, the victors of the Sorceress war had imprisoned Adel, the former Estharian ruler, within a special magic containment facilty. Despite the lifeless void that she had been moved to, Adel was still able to strike one final blow at the peaceful Esthar society.

Sorceress Ultimecia had wrestled control of Rinoa subconsciously. The new found powers that she had inherited from Edea were only just coming to bloom, naturally she was easy pickings. On board the Lunar Base, Rinoa coasted into orbit and released the seal on Adel. While thousands of miles below the Lunatic Pandora guided her home, Rinoa drifted into eternity.

As he looked through the visor of the helmet, Squall could feel the impending fear of death coursing to the surface again. A moment of suicidal courage had guided him into the open void of space, together Rinoa and he had returned to Earth. Suited like this, he felt like it were all about to occur again.

Once satisfied that the suit was secure, he strode through the entryway airlock and into the bustling infirmary. A twelve man team was ferrying chemicals and equipment around the small wing. Where normally a mere three people including the doctor could operate, there was now a small army. Impatiently he waited, wondering why none had asked him for identification or how he had violated a lockdown. Normally Squall would be recognised by anyone, but with a steamy visor and a full length body suit. The Commander could have been anyone, it was a further three minutes before a pair of the team finally walked towards him.

"Squall!" Came the familiar voice of the Doctor. "I apologise, you should have..."

"No!" The commander cut in. "**You** should have been monitoring the hall, we have many gifted computer students in these halls, any one of them could have been pretending to be me! If any of them got in here things could get out of control."

She winced and nodded. "I am sorry Squall, I..."

"I know, something catastrophic must have happened, for you to forget two key cornerstones of the code is unheard of. So, give me your report."

"Yes sir!" She announced as she slammed her heels together and saluted as best her plump frame would allow. "Lockdown has been officially in place for fourteen hours, ever since our mountain rescue team returned from a call at precisely 02:18 am. I am sorry that..."

Squall held up his hand. "Forget the apologies, just make your report."

"Yes sir!" She replied swiftly, "thirty minutes after being dispatched the team returned with seven bodies, all in an isolated rear trailer to the transport vehicle..."

Squall's nerves rose to a new height. "Why a reserve trailer? Why not on the beds of the vehicle? Those things are designed to carry up to twenty injured survivors!"

"Exactly my question sir, an analysis of the patients has forced me to one conclusion... That the seven have contracted some form of retrovirus."

"Roll call! Priority 1-A!" He barked.

To his left, the second attendant saluted. "Seed Officer Xu, reporting sir!" Squall returned the salute, "students found at the site have been identified as Katrina Wall, Justin Nekras, Yvette Coln, Jessie Knowles, Edu Lomax, Lucia Honahue and…" She paused ominously, "Zell Dincht…"

Squall blanched at the final name, and did his best to focus. "Mission patterns." The distraught commander announced cryptically.

"Sir? I don't understand." Xu replied.

"What missions have they just completed! Give me locations, name of contractees, mission detail, timings, everything! And within the hour!" He snapped, the female officer saluted sloppily before making her way to the clearing chamber.

"Squall..." The voice failed to reach him, "Squall!"

"What is it Doctor?" He replied venomously.

"Don't bottle your feelings up, I know what you are like, you take after Cid. He found it all too easy to cover up what he felt. Like him you go into your shell, hiding behind this authoritative fascade."

The man sighed and looked up. "I did not expect Zell to be named in the list, after all we have been through. The Dollet mission, Sorceress Edea, time compression... Only to be hit by some virus, it seems... Wrong."

Kadowaki smiled. "I have known for a long time how you care for you friends, right now he is in danger, and needs a friend to find a way to get him clear. You can't lose your grip Squall."

The former seed nodded in agreement. "I guess I have to remain focused... The mountain rescue team, where are they?"

She pointed to the north of the infirmary. "The ward for psychiatric patients has been vacated and locked down, they are currently being observed and cared for in there. You wish to see them?"

"I have to, they were the last people to see them before the virus took fully, were any words passed between the victims and rescuers? Was there sign of any interference? This information could be vital. In the meantime, I want you to prepare a full statement. Make it detailed, we need to know what we are up against. Be ready within the hour, I'll have the rank seeds waiting on the deck." With a salute he walked to the hygiene space between the infirmary and the psychiatric wing.

* * *

The screen blinked repeatedly in front of her, the image constantly rotating and changing at her almost unconscious demands. Fingers graced and tapped at the keyboard swiftly, her eyes fixed solely on the main screen, never wavering to guide her fingers. To an outsider it was almost as if she were telepathic, yet her mind was not possessing such focus. Nearly twenty-four hours had passed since the team had been admitted to the biohazard wing, and yet she still felt the tension of the whole event pressing against her.

Xu had been vocal about having Squall in from the beginning, during the war with the sorceress Ultimecia, every decision went through their commander, whether he fully controlled the bridge or not. Yet here, Kadowaki and herself had breached his command and setup behind his back, his anger still pressed on her mind.

He was a friend of Zell, surely he had the right to know? Squall may have always passed himself off as the introverted child that trusted no one and revealed no feelings. But the sight of someone he cared about may have broken him, he had, after all, risked himself numerous times for the friends he had been so dismissive of.

"Focus Xu!" She urged herself, "mistakes can be cured another time."

The file popped open and she began to peruse the document. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the mission, ever since the fallout from the war had blown over, there was no real need for mass forces that left destruction in their wake. According to the file this was a nothing mission, but then her eyes were arrested by the last line of the order. Shocked, she instantly ordered reams of paper to be printed from the machine and readied her own statement to the master of the Garden.

* * *

His mind swam as the thoughts of his friend came back to him, against all advice of the doctor, he had looked closely at the wounded. Every one of them had red rashes on their faces, while numerous lumps had begun to form underneath the skin. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. When a subject was poisoned the skin became clammy and hot, but even then, it wouldn't look like something was threatening to burst from beneath the epidermis.

For a moment tears formed in his eyes, but he shook them back, he was a professional and would not be jaded by the scenario unravelling before his eyes. So he had gone along with procedure as impartial as always, his greatest suit was that he could shut the emotions off.

It was useful as this torture continued, the thick jets of water pressed him against the wall, despite any urge he had to cut and run, he endured. The feeling of being assaulted by the streams was compounded upon by the horrible chafing of his skin. Thick brushes rubbed at his skin, the sharp bristles drawing blood as the soap bubbled up on his back.

For three minutes he stood naked, hands pressed to the wall, beneath his feet he could see a trickle of blood sloshing towards the central drain. Slowly the pain on his spine began to abate as the brushes were lifted clear. Turning he stomped into the drying cubicle and felt the hot air blast all the moisture from his body. Hung on a hook, still damp from the wash, were his regular clothes. With a mutter of annoyance he swiftly dressed and walked to the main corridor.

"We're very sorry sir, we had to be cautious with the outbreak." One sentry called as he reappeared and dressed into the rubber suit again.

"We have a code to follow, so don't worry yourself. How do you avoid contagion in the washing though?" The leader asked, more to fill the silence of the walk towards the survivors.

"We don't actually touch anything with our hands, all the rubber and disposal bags are made from a special form that is composed on the same basis as a hydrocarbon ring." Squall concealed his disinterest by nodding. "Plastic is made from the fusion of carbon and hydrogen, what we did was find a way to replicate that process using the chemical hydroxide. Once water hits the plastic, it reacts to dissolve completely, so in short. We dump the clothes in the bags, throw the bags into the wash and then it dissolves and washes. Easy."

"Innovative, sounds like the kind of technology that made Esthar so famous. Are the excavation team in a sealed chamber?"

The nameless soldier nodded. "Doctor Kadowaki ordered an immediate detention of anyone who had come into contact with the infected. Luckily the initial arrival had occured at such an hour that the other students were in their dorms. Vigilance of the night staff prevented them from mixing."

"Take me to them, I want to know more about how they came into contact."

* * *

The spires of the future city glistened in the distance, this world was what he had become one with. A world that had risen, fallen and risen again. It was a testimony to the constant attempt to improve and strive to succeed, even when all seemed lost. Yet the glistening beauty of the spires touched his soul, this was a world that he had crafted and moulded into greatness once again.

"I miss her," he suddenly announced, cutting across the silence of the Presidential suite. "Lil Ellone always makes me smile, the thought of her out in the world again terrifies me." Laguna added in a fatherly tone.

Kiros smiled. "Man you really have become the big guy about family haven't you? I'll never forget the shock I experienced when I found you in Winhill all those years ago. Months earlier we had been sinking whiskeys in Deling and generally going about life like all men should. Heh, and who can forget that encounter with Julia?"

"That's not funny Kiros!" The President shouted, Ward, the mute giant, felt a huge smile form on his lips, showing all the words he needed to the massed group. "I am scared, all that business with time messed everyone up."

"It brought everyone together though, the family reunion, you never felt closer." Instantly he knew he had made a mistake, the happy atmosphere began to shrink and fade. An uncomfortable silence reigned over the air for a moment before Laguna's eyes sank towards the desk.

"Not completely... I... Wish it could have been easier..." A cramp began to rise in his leg, "oww!" He screamed as it took hold, painfully he staggered around the suite, his right leg locked solid, as if splintered. Slowly the cramp began to ease and he stood with his hands clasped tightly to his spine. "Squall said to me that he learned a long time ago that he had to survive on his own, that he couldn't accept me as his father... I understood... Ellone always recieved more love from me..."

Kiros placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "According to those friends of his, your boy also feels very close to her. These things take time man."

"Eighteen years, Kiros, how much longer can I give him?" The question went unanswered, it was all too rehtoric.

* * *

The quarantine enforced at the infirmary had left the crew with little alternative to offer the rescue team. The area assigned for them was the space used for those who were diagnosed with dementia or other mental side effects, lovingly referred to as the 'isolation ward' by those on the outside. Squall felt it ironic that its colloquial name had become all so literal.

The floors were highly reflexive, tiny speckled dots interrupted the images of themselves that were formed in the floor. All the windows were blacked out, no natural light being allowed into the cells. A staggering smell of disenfectant saturated their senses as they walked towards the group. Squall lifted his eyes from the ground and looked at the window before him. The large rectangle pane emphasised the despair that was being felt inside.

A six man crew sat on rock hard pallet beds, their elbows resting on their knees and palms under their chins, like bored school children. As the squadron saw the sudden visit, a sole figure arose from the bed and snapped into the garden salute.

"Rescue team JA-79 reporting, sir!"

Squall returned the salute. "At ease." The man relaxed and stood casually. "I realise that current conditions for you are difficult. As Commander of Garden, I profusely apologise for enforcing this. But we cannot be certain that you were not exposed to what could be a potentially fatal virus. Do you understand?"

Every member of the crew nodded. "We understand perfectly, sir." The man announced.

"Are you the squad leader?" The man nodded, "announce yourself and introduce your team."

"Yes sir!" He called loudly. "Operative Jason Wilcox, ID number ALSR43786; squad leader of unit JA-79 of the Mountain rescue team, based at Balamb Garden." He turned and pointed at a young girl. "This is operative Tijana Swale, Medical support to the Mountain rescue." Swiftly the figure pointed at an aged and bearded man. "Operative Ritegen van Darias, Main pilot." Seemlessly he directed Squall to a short man. "Operative Ted Wallace, Communications engineer." The leader immediately gestured at another young woman. "Operative Nadia Turunen, Navigation engineer." Lastly he pointed at a young and short man. "Operative Ash Hanneman, main rescue operative at ground level."

Squall nodded, "thank you squad leader, you may rejoin your colleagues." As the squad leader walked to the long beds, the commander sat himself in a large chair. "I want a full report on how you found the wounded, and how you recovered them."

Jason took a breath. "Mountain rescue, due to the nature of our role, are on constant twenty-four hour alert. At precisely 01:30 hours we were disturbed by our communication device. I ordered for the message to be relayed on the main screen. I saw a lone figure with a large tribal tattoo on his face, he was kneeling on the ground, clutching at his chest. Behind him lay six other survivors, all groaning and lying flat on their backs. The message simply asked for immediate assistance. No co-ordinates were given." Before Squall could question the manhunt for the infected, the rescue team leader pointed at Ted Wallace.

"I swiftly deployed tracking software to recover the location of where the distress call originated. It told us that they were at the base of a set of mountains just to the north of Balamb, merely half a mile from the military sea port." He gestured back to Jason.

"With the data in hand we immediately took a large SUV and went to our duty. A report was filed with the main gate, before we drove out to them."

Squall nodded. "Did any of you make physical with contact them?"

The leader nodded, "we had to lift them onto stretchers. Ash and Nadia were the ones who did that, as they were the only true expert medics in our team."

Squall nodded again and turned to the pair, "You have been back from the job for over twelve hours now, are you feeling any form of illness?" The pair shook their heads, "that's good; it could be a sign of all clear. However to be safe I am going to have the pair of you removed to individual cells, just so we can protect the less infected." The pair nodded and rose from the pallet bed, beside him Squall saw the quarantine leader move forwards. "Make them comfortable, whatever they ask for give it to them, so long as no one enters the cells they are assigned." The Seed turned back to the Perspex, "thank you for your assistance. I shall have the doctor thoroughly examine all of you, she will eventually decide if any of you can have the all clear, thank you once again for your co-operation." Swiftly he rose from the seat and left the ward.

* * *

Doctor Kadowaki felt the strings of her age dragging her down. Twice her head struck the desk before her eyes flickered open. The files were open where she had left them, frustrated she knocked the cup of coffee to the floor. In fifteen minutes she would be expected to give a report to the entire senior SeeD and she had the square root of nothing that was conclusive.

Her only theory was about as believable as a meteor throwing tornadoes at a two levelled city. Yet, she knew that a professional attitude was required during the meeting. This was definitely a form of virus, somehow it was acting in the blood and deteriorating the organs from within. This was common with fatal viruses, which didn't help, but one thing they often shared was time.

Months, years even, before they reached a state where they had no biological control, yet it had been days at the most. How Zell managed to communicate that message, or even lead his team home, were things that she could not guess at. Clasping her eyes at the text and images once more she began to look for something, anything that could possibly give a clue to the situation at hand.

An alarm clock vibrated on the desk, the bell sounding like an alarm to alert for general chaos. Jumping from the chair she gathered up the card files and rushed towards the lift.

* * *

The walk to the office had not been one that he had taken with great haste. As soon as he walked on the bridge, the tranquility that all had enjoyed would be shattered. Sighing he looked at the patterns on the floor once more. _"Where are you Cid? With your calm and control when all began to come apart?" _This thought kept him in check as he stormed through the milled crowd that had gathered in the halls. A barrage of questions assaulted his hearing, stone faced and silent, he ignored them and marched on.

Arriving later than everyone, he maintained his authority by walking past the SeeDs and sitting in the swivel chair, facing the frosted windows once again. Inside his mind, the thoughts swirled like a maelstrom, once he turned it would have to be the Commander who addressed them. Taking a deep breath, he spun around and watched as the four slid their left foot into their right and placed a palm salute in front of their faces.

Squall returned it swiftly. "At ease," the order was obeyed instantly. "You have all performed exceptionally in the new roles to which you have been assigned." His eyes glanced askance at the figure of sharp shooter Irvine. "Your task has been especially difficult, to return to a place you called home for so long to discharge and dismiss your friends must have been very difficult. The approach and methods used have brought great praise to you from the President of Esthar." Ignoring the deserved smile, Squall walked back towards his chair. "I wish that this was what I called the meeting for, in fact, I wish I had more time to reward the exceptional effort you have all shown to Garden..."

"Squall it's ok, you know that..." Quistis was silenced by the raised hand of her commander.

"Quistis, your work with the criminal investigation team has been remarkable too, in fact every one of you deserve a one to one brief on what you have accomplished... There is no easy way to do this, so I'll come right out with it."

Selphie nervously glanced at him. "Squall... You're scaring me, what's wrong?"

"As you may or may not be aware, the infirmary has been locked down. This is not a drill, it is an emergency procedure invoked by the medical staff. In the early hours of this morning, seven of our students were committed in a critical condition. All are suffering from what appears to be some form of virus... One of those students was the Commander of the mission, Zell Dincht." The name cut through the trio before him, tears stung the eyes of Quistis, blinking fast she failed to stop them welling out. Irvine meanwhile, felt the upset form of Selphie slide against him, circling an arm around her, he began to whisper soft words into her ear.

"I understand and sympathise with what you are feeling. However, we must not allow personal feelings to get in the way of our investigation and ultimately the safety of this garden. I will shortly be going on record to confirm a report to the students, but before I do, I want all of you to be aware of the full findings... Give me your report!" The sudden command cut through the ambivalent atmosphere. All eyes fell on a nearby pillar as Xu stalked from behind it, originally unseen and unheard. She snapped into a salute at the four figures.

"The group were assigned under the pseudonym 'Angellus', the mission statement has them listed as an orbservation unit hired by the Shumi Tribe, North-East of what was Trabia Garden. The mission itself seems to be very little out of the ordinary, they were wanted to watch and report on activity that had begun at an abandoned site on a peninsula north of the settlement..." Xu hesitated suddenly.

"Your report, please complete it!" Squall ordered.

"Yes sir!" She nervously announced, " the site is referred to as Adellone."

Squall's eyes narrowed. "That name... It sounds like a remnant of the Sorceress war, such a term should have been flagged by our systems and reported to me! Who authorised the mission?"

"It was an order signed by yourself sir." Xu answered.

"I have no idea how this order came to be signed, we'll look at that itself. In the meantime it is clear that this tribe know more about the site and exactly why the Seed's were hired. This information will be crucial, with seven lives at stake we are not sure how long we have, Doctor, report on the virus." The group looked on as she appeared from a second swivel chair and bowed to all on the bridge.

"The students are all going through a stage of viral infection that is causing the bodies to deteriorate. Are any of you aware of a condition called Leprosy?" She asked, all shook their heads. "I am not surprised, it is an illness that was wiped out centuries ago. What I know of it, is similar to this condition. The body begins to literally break up."

"How do you mean? It sounds awful!" Quistis cut back.

Kadowaki nodded. "It is, Leprosy, as I said, literally made the body break up. People would be sitting down minding their on business when their toes would just drop off, the body withers while the host lives."

"It sounds like a corpse decaying." Irvine interjected.

"That is probably the closest analogy I have heard for a long time. What I am seeing downstairs is a form of this, the bodies are seemingly beginning to decay, however, it looks like it could be affecting the inside of the body too. This is all based off basic findings, the condition is in early stages but we have no idea how fast it moves. A cure is probably the only way for us to save them."

"With this threat," Squall began, "we have to go through with an unusual protocol. Here is how it shall be played out. Quistis, you are too liase with Xu and organise a military lockdown of the entire Garden. Every exit and main entryway is to be fully secured with biohazard procedures seen at the infirmary, we have to control this threat now."

"Squall... I mean... Sir... Who am I to allow through?"

"No one." He responded quickly. "Unless I give the order, there is to be no access to or from this garden, as of now we are dark. Any Seeds currently active in the field will be ordered via com devices to report to the outfield bases in Centra, Galbadia and Esthar." The group all gave out a sound of shock as they heard the order. "You probably think this foolish, but with this potential outbreak we cannot afford to have open access, the consequences could be appalling."

"What if there is an internal outbreak!" Selphie screamed, "do we just let people die?"

"If we have to yes!" He snapped, "an outbreak in Garden would be devastating, that is certain, but at least we can cap the losses as our own, rather than risk the outside world." She made to protest but Squall raised his hand, "this is the final word on the matter! We must secure the virus, if that gets out then anything could and more likely would happen!" Swiftly he faced Irvine. "You are to be the last to leave Garden, your team will go through a full detox procedure beforehand. Your mission is simple, investigate that village and find out what happened there."

"How many will I have?" The shooter responded.

"Three Seed agents and a hazmat team. You leave in an hour." Cautiously he looked back at Selphie. "You are an agile and well liked student. As such I need you to head the final part of the operation. There is a chance that students could have been infected, it isn't likely, but we need to have a contingency plan ready. You will work with the doctor to prepare a medical response team in case anyone succumbs to the virus, or worse, we have an outbreak."

With the brief prepared, Squall sighed before reaching for the microphone, as he hit the switch a jingle sounded across the Garden.

* * *

In the centre of the garden, a swarm of students descended upon the large dais at the main entrance. The collosus mapped out all areas of the garden to those who had not set foot in before. Yet, for once, this magnificent construction was not what marshalled the attention of all around it. As the jingle ebbed, all listened to the announcement.

"_Attention all Students, staff and visitors." _The voice of Squall rang out over the crowd of people.

"_I have no doubts that you have all seen the infirmary and the mass of strangers working within it. This is not an exercise, we are, as of this moment, in full scale crisis alert. Specific details are unclear, however, this Garden is at major risk. Due to circumstances of this risk, we are locking this Garden down." _There was a shocked outcry as the words hammered home like a pneumatic drill.

"_Understand that this is done out of sheer necessity alone, there will be no access to and from this garden. We are going to relocate to a secure location soon, in the meantime we are remaining at the old site on the continent of Balamb. Classes will continue as normal as possible, so all students and staff return to your roles. All visitors from outside the garden will be given free accommodation within our en-suite wing. This risk will be combated."_

There was a sense of shock that hung in the air as the words cut out, their leader had just confirmed that the Garden was at crisis alert. Last time that happened there had been a mutiny amongst the redundant Garden Faculty and missiles had almost wiped them out. Yet they had survived because of the professional work of SeeD and the backup from the main comanders. Cid had ordered unity in the face of crisis, it had worked then. Unsure, but not panicked, the students began to mill towards their destined classes.

* * *

Quistis stepped forwards as he finished speaking. "You didn't tell them the full details."

Squall nodded his head. "Correct, I didn't." He paused slightly. "Selphie raised an important point when she mentioned a potential outbreak. If I told all the students that there was a highly dangerous retrovirus at work within the Garden we would have an immediate panic. Followed with rioting on the gates, with the gates down they would be out amongst the populace, and possibly carry with them, this virus."

Xu nodded, "you have chosen the correct course, though once Selphie appears with her team people are going to question the enhanced medical activity."

"We shall address that problem when it arises, right now the safety of the students needs to be ensured." Swiftly the leader turned to Irvine. "You are to leave quietly, join Quistis and she will ensure you are not seen leaving. Dismissed." They all turned to leave, "One final thing." They all stopped in their tracks. "Good luck to you all, find whatever information you can. An anti-virus maybe our only option." They nodded and left the office. Squall sank into the soft leather and angrily slapped the armrests. Only once he was alone did he allow the tears for his comrade fall…


	2. Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 2: - Ashes to Ashes

The Garden possessed a buzz about it that he hadn't seen in a long time. Whispers began murmuring amongst the students, he gazed at the board as the tutor attempted to punch home the finer points of drawing magic. The terminal blinked at him as the cursor on the word processor remained blank, he hadn't paid enough attention to make the notes.

Suddenly the corner of his screen flashed blue, instantly he was alert, carefully the student glanced at his classmates. Either they were whispering rumours in each others ears or reading the notes handed to them earlier. Sure that no one would notice, he opened the program. A simple message appeared on screen.

_"Report, 15:00 hours."_

His heart skipped a thousand beats, carefully he drew in deep breaths and purged the programme. A wire check revealed the system was clean, it had not flagged on the security server. The fingers twitched and instantly notes began to fill the screen, he had been treading water until the message appeared. Now he had a purpose, his eyes stared at the wallclock, he had an hour until the lesson ended, and barely anytime to find a secure location to fulfil his role...

* * *

In the parking lot an empty SUV with blacked out windows sat quietly. The engines dead and no signs of life. Inside, Irvine, Quistis and the chosen seeds sat over a small electronic map. They had waited an age until they were sure that no one had followed them.

"This mission is black box," Quistis began. "Ordered by Commander Squall himself. A sorceress war code has been flagged by our systems, we are unsure of whether this is a redundant lead from then, or an active cell. Your mission is simple, investigate it and neutralise any hostiles encountered on the way."

"Why the need for hazmat?" One student asked.

"We have to cover all possibilities," Irvine added swiftly. "I am a sharp shooter, what I am best at, and I one time was called to what should have been a simple shooting job. Turned out the nut had experience with chemicals and had a vial of bromine gas, had I shot him everyone would have had their lungs burned from the inside! We didn't have hazmat when I arrived, turned into a nasty hostage situation... You understand?" The student nodded silently. "Good, back in a moment." Quistis and he swiftly left the vehicle.

"They are a bit green, you sure they are up to it?" Quistis asked.

Irvine nodded, "you guys had it rough straight out of the box best I recall. Squall needs the best at his disposal in Garden itself, but this site does sound dangerous." He winked at her, "just as well the most heroic of us is leading."

She smiled. "You understand that after this you won't be coming back until given the all clear?"

"It's going to be tough, tell Selphie I love her, we'll be back sometime. If anyone asks about me, tell them that I am overseeing the high rise patrols. Few people care about those guys so it should cover everything for a while." Flicking his long ponytail back into place, the lone gunman strode towards the vehicle.

* * *

It had been a difficult cut to make. As everyone else darted for the dorms, quads and food courts... He had faded into the background, though he was used to that, it had made him good at the task at hand. Though his mentor was far better, few recognised him. Even the closest friends the guy worked with, could watch him disappear before their very eyes.

The lone student stepped out onto the deck and felt the wind brush him back, an arm suddenly circled his throat and he was dragged back into a recess. For a moment he struggled before the grip relented, turning, the low level pupil looked at the one he answered to.

"You weren't followed?" He asked swiftly.

"Of course not, you know how high the stakes are."

"Relax Gideon, you can trust me. But they're watching, every move will be registered now, we have to make things move swiftly. What do you know of today?"

"I expected news from the top brass to reach you easier, but of course, you're always slipping in and out of sight, they probably don't know you're gone. It's an art I wish I had."

"Your answer, if you don't mind?" The figure's eyes narrowed and Gideon gulped deeply before pulling clear a small data stick.

"I had a feed of the cameras running through a secondary channel on my terminal. At about 2 o'clock my scanner picked up a transcript of some rescue mission, since then the infirmary has been going haywire. Looks like a few SeeSs are infected with some retro virus. How can you be up top and not know this shit?"

"As you say, I slip in and out." The man produced a wad of notes. "This'll keep your supply up for a good few months, though I hope your supplier is not going to be strangled by the lockdown. This conversation never happened." As swiftly as he had arrived, the man left, his elegant uniform fluttering in the breeze. Gideon grinned as he counted the notes, at least 10,000 gil was in his hands. Gleefully he rushed for the lower levels.

* * *

Doctor Kadowaki felt the weight of her years pressing down on her brain. Years of toil, hardship and pain, all so that others could get better. Against every instruction she had been taught, the doctor couldn't simply switch off her emotions. She once watched her mentor wheel a body into the mortuary and give a full examination, detailing all the wounds, cause and time of death, signs of a struggle... All the catalogs of a trip to the morgue, when he left the theatre she saw him vomit and begin crying inconsolably. She had later found out that the body was that of his wife, an innocent killed in a bar brawl.

Her eyes looked over the patients in their beds, the hazmat suit hiding the worst of her crying. How had that doctor managed to blanket all emotion until he left the theatre? It was a strength that she just didn't have, and it was harming her patients.

"Throw away your crying towel," she spat through gritted teeth. "You have to find the cure for this!"

She pressed her fingers to the underside of two patients wrists, the beats were rapid and constant, but not at a set rhythm. It was as if the muscle in the core of the body was just throwing blood around the body. As she pulled the fingers away from one patient, her hand found it tricky to dislodge. Carefully she wiggled the rubber material before it finally came loose, tearing with it a large patch of skin.

Horrified she flicked the wrist out fully and saw that the flesh was going purple, the dislodged skin had decayed. Taking a small pair of tweezer she clamped a little of the skin and lifted very gently, the flesh parted easily, it was as if a suit had been unzipped. At an instant whim she could pull away the outer layers.

Desperately she rushed from the infirmary and hosed down under the regulations, before rushing towards the bridge, this was terrifying. If the decay continued at such a rate many would not last more than three days. Panicked she rushed on, through the milled students, towards the distant Commander of the Garden...

* * *

She could feel the air contorting and struggling, it was bowing to her control. Focusing tightly, she controlled the ebb, aiming the pressure to the target. It's hard shell gave the armadillo creature a great advantage, a natural armour that granted it protection. But the air was her weapon, the element that could seep through any cracks in the shell.

As she saw the pores widening, the rush of air opening the enemy up, her mind lost its focus. From within she saw puss weeping to the ground, decaying as it came into contact. Desperately she cried out and felt the control falter. The moisture at the tips of her fingers warming and falling like rain to the training centre floor. Gasping, she fell to the floor, her brown hair drooping over her face, matted from the sweat of her efforts.

"You are getting closer," the elderly voice called. "As a sorceress you have control of magic that all will envy." Edea announced calmly, gesturing for her protege to rise.

"Yeah, and many will fear it too. You remember the address to the people in Esthar? I could feel their energy bows aimed at me from every tower." Rinoa countered darkly.

Edea sighed. "You can't blame them my dear, they had endured tyrannical rule from a sorceress, and of course, the possession from the future did not help in any way."

"They're just xenophobes, bunch of obnoxious people who go on about how advanced they are! So advanced they are blinkered by the past!"

Swiftly Edea wrapped her in a hug. "Sshhh..." She cooed gently, "don't upset yourself child. It isn't your fault, you didn't want to free Adel, nor even take my powers. It was beyond your control, what everyone has to remember is that you became the pillar of time compression, and you helped destroy the evil. Actions are louder than words..." Rinoa wept on her shoulder, it was a pressure no one was meant to handle. Edea knew it all too well.

As a child she had walked along the Cape of Good Hope, the ocean lapping at a sandy world beyond its grasp. There she had found an ageing woman, screaming at the top of her voice, Edea pleaded for her to live. Yet the lady let her head droop to the sand and in an instant red smoke arose from her. Being just a young girl, Edea did not understand as the colours flowed into her. Visions of distant worlds, the rise and fall of stars, of power beyond control. They flooded her, and the innocent child collapsed.

She had no idea how long it was before she woke up, but the sensation that everything changed flooded her immediately. Like all young children, Edea had been prone to rolling over and falling from the bed. On that night she did something even more spectacular, she rolled over and fell onto the bed. All the time spent asleep, had been suspended from the ground, defying everything people knew about the world.

The strangeness of the world at the orphanage and the new found power made childhood very difficult for her. While other children threw balls and jumped from walls. She had been plagued by headaches and a constant need to thrust her arms before her. Often sending trees, animals and rocks flying for many metres. Unlike the girl crying on her shoulder, Edea had to bear the lonliness and the pain alone. It was why she wouldn't let the dying sorceress that came to the orphanage twenty years later anywhere near the orphans.

"I just... Find it such a burden!" Rinoa sobbed, "it's too much to take in. I am training harder than any SeeD, fighting to control the world around me and my own mind... I am not some soldier!" The spirited woman roared.

Edea smiled. "At this time you need to be free, go to him."

Rinoa nodded. "Yeah, I need to scratch his eyeballs out for giving that announcement and not letting me in on it!" She whistled and from nearby brush leapt the mischevious dog that followed her everywhere. Edea watched her pupil walk with a swagger from the training area, no matter the progress, deep down. The mentor knew that the sorceress had a long way to go until the power was under control.

* * *

The frosted glass that had earlier granted him so much peace no longer radiated calm upon him. The orange light of a fractured sunset filtered through into the command tower of the garden upper levels. Squall ignored the change in the light and instead poured all attention he had into the document at hand. The whole thing was a sham, that much he knew straight off the bat. 'Adellone' stuck out too much, it had no subtlety, or if it did, it was lost on him.

One thing it did strike home immediately was the names, the threat of Adel had been wiped out months earlier, but Ellone was still an end that could come under threat. He repressed any immediate fear that filled his mind and returned to the document. The fact that the Shumi tribe had so little interaction with the outside world meant that this was obviously some sort of hostile mission.

"Zell, why did you keep this secret!" The commander muttered as he slapped the file back on his desk.

_"He's eager to do his best, so he just stuck his head down and got on with it!"_ As he heard her voice, his heart skipped a beat. The anxiety began to subside, slowly he turned on the spot and drank in the look of her eyes.

"Zell is not..." He sighed, "dammit! I just don't understand, it all happened so fast!"

"Too fast!" Rinoa cut back in, " you cut me out again!" She laughed and aimed a slap, which she pulled at the last moment. "You promised me! No secrets!" The sorceress slumped forwards into his arms and rested her head against his shoulder.

"I'm not alone," he cooed softly as he stroked her hair. "I couldn't pull you both out before I briefed my head officers. I'm sorry."

She pulled away and looked into his eyes. "I _am_ one of you, we went to another world together. You need me by your side from now on!" She called stubbornly. Rinoa was headstrong, often to a childish extent. At first the Commander felt angered that she addressed him so impertinently, but that gradually slipped away as she wept into his shoulder.

"Ok." He announced, "but we're headed for dangerous waters. Did you hear the announcement?" Rinoa nodded and wiped her eyes. "What I didn't announce was that the lockdown is because seven students returned from a mission infected with a virus."

"What!" She shrieked, "the students have a right to..."

"The only right they have is to follow chain of command!" He snapped back. "If this gets out we could have a panic, if anyone else is infected we could cause an outbreak. Right now Xu and Quistis are instigating a full lockdown. What we need to concentrate on is finding a cure!"

She backed away and at first appeared to make for the mic herself, before she slumped down and slammed her fist against the table with the papers on.

"Who would do such a thing?" She wept.

"That's what I am trying to find out. Somehow Zell led a team to a site on orders of the Shumi Tribe..."

"They cut themselves off! They're at peace in the underground world they made!"

"I know Rinoa, which is why I ranted about Zell not telling me. You're probably right though, he most likely did want to just get on with it. Now he's infected with some virus, and we have no idea how it happened."

"Squall... We should..." Rinoa faltered.

"Come out with it, any suggestion is better than none." He ordered.

She nodded, "the codename sounds Estharian. _He_ might be able to find something on their side."

Squall snorted and walked to the glass. "I told everyone this before, we will _never_ be father and son. He abandoned my mother, me, even sis. I won't forgive that!"

"Now who's being stubborn?" She asked cuttingly, "whether you two kiss and make up or not, they might be able help us Squall! This isn't the train mission, we have a friend's life at stake!" For a long minute silence ruled the air, Squall stood at the front of the ship. Refusing to back down, Laguna had told him the truth and he felt nothing. The only memories he had of his father had been shown him by Ellone, the man was a face from a distant past, nothing more.

"I don't want anything to make things difficult. Going to Esthar and getting him involved will do just that."

"Stop making excuses!" Rinoa screamed. "You defied an army to rescue me from the memorial site, and dived into space without caring about your own life all for me."

"But Rinoa... I love you..."

"And you don't love your friends?" The question caught him off guard and he fumbled through meaningless words. She watched him, her eyes not leaving his. He continued to try and look away, taking his gaze from her. But the piercing look and the question held him in check.

Slowly he shook his head. "No Rinoa, that isn't true..." He slumped into the high backed chair and breathed deeply. "I can't do this, I am not functioning, you're right, the Esthar government can provide insight... But I just can't let go."

Rinoa knelt before him and held his hand. "You don't have to, just think of Zell. Your father and yourself have a difficult relationship, but that doesn't mean you can't work together does it?"

He shook his head. "Setup a conference call, if they stonewall on you call me over, I have security clearance to bypass any constiutions they have in place." She smiled and darted to the large conference room.

* * *

The main entrance had the look of a fortress. Where before Balamb Garden had possessed a wonderful entrance that was full of glistening marble and chrome. There was now a mass of steel, as if a portcullis had been dropped in front of the garden. Quistis stood behind the thick glass and stared into the garden. She was in the last line, the airlock that sealed garden from the outside world.

"It's crazy." She began suddenly, "looking at it now. This is a school, yet now it has become some secret military site."

Xu nodded while rubbing her eyes. "I am sorry Quisty. The Doctor and me have been up for nearly fifteen hours with barely any sleep between yesterday. I am losing my concentration..."

Quistis shook her head. "You've been magnificent, just what Squall needed, a staff who was dedicated beyond duty."

"Dedicated beyond foolishness more like, I just can't believe this has all happened. Especially the mission being signed by Squall."

"You think he might have done it? Squall always thought too much about things, especially when it involved Ellone. He wouldn't have signed anything that referred to her." First Sergeant Trepe countered.

"I know what are you saying but..." She let out a huge yawn, "but who else could have got into the system? Especially enough to fool Zell!"

Quistis nodded and looked deeper into the garden. "I can't believe we are enforcing a full lockdown... Squall has been clever, he gave everyone an hour to get back into class. Any other time and we'd have needed to throw up some psionic walls to get them to back off."

"Are you scared?" Xu asked suddenly.

Quistis nodded, "very scared, terrified. Can you say you want to enforce Code Ex-alpha?"

A visible shiver went down the spine of Xu, she had seen this code herself personally three years earlier. Deling city had organised a special exhibit at the university in the northern quarter. All had been well except one of the specimens was still conscious and expelled some noxious subtances into the lab rooms. Instantly it had been sealed off and all entry or exit forbidden. For three hours all was silence, before one med student made a break for it...

"Quisty... I wouldn't want to kill any students..." She swallowed a lump in her speech, "but Squall is right, we must guard the populace, no matter the cost!" She pulled a radio from her belt. "Is the seal to the observation deck in place?" She asked assertively.

_"Copy, unit JT-7 have vacuum sealed the joists in the doorframe. All hinges have been coated in liquid mithril, and we have created a shield over the whole thing from the scaled dragon skin that the training grendels have shed over time. It is tightly sealed and surrounded by a small forcefield. Any attempt to break through will trigger a cloud of ether power that could fell a t-rexaur!"_

"Good work, report to site G, ensure that the tunnels are sealed off. Also cut the water feed to the fountains, all service tunnels, sewers and air ducts are to be locked down!" Quistis watched Xu's face, despite the hard words, the eyes told her long time partner that she was equally uncomfortable with the lockdown...

* * *

"... It's still out I am affraid," the girl concluded with a twinge of regret in her voice. A long ponytail hung over her left shoulder and down towards the middle of the chest.

"Dang! That book is never in when I want it! Oh well..." The tattooed student stalked away from the desk in the library, despite not looking back, he could feel her watching him. It unnerved him a little, the girl always perked up when he came into the library. Nonchalantly he dragged a thick book from the middle shelf of the combat section and began to skim read through it, mere seconds had passed before he felt like drifting off. _"I bet my grandfather never had to do this."_ The thought echoed through his mind as the words failed to sink in.

_FLASH_

Silence ruled the inside of the craft, with the brief finished all three of the exam participants prepared themselves for the role ahead. Bored by the hollow air, the figure rose to his feet and began to shadowbox. His feet and fists striking sharply and cleanly at the air, as if he were sparring against someone else.

"Stop that, it's annoying..." He froze and turned to face the voice, "chicken!" The speaker added cuttingly. His short blonde hair fitting for the military.

"What did you just call me!?" The candidate retorted. The commander began chuckling as the SeeD tutors berated the abusive leader.

"Calm down the pair of you, it is vital this is treated like a true mission!" Xu called from the briefing table.

_FLASH_

Pain rifled through his body, sharp blasts that shook his mind. His vision was failing, not because of the night, it was his body beginning to shut down. The other six had collapsed, Lucia clutched at his leg with the last of her strength, before passing out. Desperately he rubbed at his eyes while gritting his teeth. They were miles from Garden, he couldn't carry them by himself. The mission was a failure, clawing at the bloodied radio before him, he felt the pain anew.

"Commander... Dincht..." He coughed, "urgent assistance... Team down, send help... Opera..." Zell gagged and coughed, blood flowing from inside his mouth like a waterfall, before the darkness swallowed him whole...

_FLASH_

_"Cry baby Zell! Cry baby Zell!"_ The child's voice cooed into his ear laughingly. _"Zell is a cry baby!"_

"SHUT UP!" He screamed, panic flowing through him. Thrusting himself forward, the SeeD came back to consciousness. He felt cold sweat on his brow and began to pinch himself. Soft grass had absorbed his form, the damp earth granting a delicate cushion for his head. Confused he rose to his feet and took in the world about him.

It had an air of familiarity about it, yet, he could not place where he was. Reaching to his side the warrior fumbled at the clothes he wore. The thick radio was nowhere to be seen. Looking down he saw that he wore a pair of black trousers that seemed to be made from velvet. Though he wore no shirt; instead a pair of leather thongs formed an X shape over his shoulders. Hung in a sheath on either side, were a pair of strange knives. Each formed from three spikes, like the head of a trident.

Panicked he noticed a silver helmet on the ground, gathering it up he took in short sharp breaths. Chanting the mantra of his grandfather to himself.

_"Mind and body as one, from strength learn gentleness, from gentleness the strength to prevail." _An inner calm and power flowed through him, quelling the fire of anxiety and shock that had claimed him. Nothing he wore belong to him, Zell was a fist fighter, he had never needed to use a weapon.

Opening his eyes he drank in the scenery. Crags seemed to surround him, white tipped mountains that dwarfed all the horizon. Intently he focused, looking for anything that he knew. A sound of water lapping at rock encroached over the silence. Loking ahead, Zell saw a long path that widened at the tip of a hill.

Breathing deeply, he set off at a loping run. The path inched up at a gentle gradiant. Ducking overhanging branches and clearing large boulders. The tribal warrior pounded on at pace. The mountains formed a circular wall, with the only break appearing far to the north, almost as if it were a gate between two worlds.

As Zell reached the crest he gasped and drank in the view. Beneath him was a colossal lake, beautiful crystal blue waters smoothly stroked the banks. Over a radius of two miles the waters stretched. Many shadows coursed through the depths, superficial images of the schools of life that inhabited their depths.

The view was familiar to him, yet he had never seen anything like it. It irked him, in the depths of his memory he could see faint images of some story that this world belonged to. His frustration ebbed as he heard the sound of metal scraping on stone. Slowly he raised his arms, one stretched before his face while the other guarded the lower body, angled across the chest.

A whisper of cloth to his left gave him all the direction he needed. He turned quickly and saw the knife going to the the groin. Brushing the knife hand away with the back of hi palms, Zell swiftly gripped the back of the assailant's wrist and savagely twisted it back on itself. The bones snapped as if they were frozen twigs. Zell made to finish the man off when he felt a metal point on the back of his neck. Before he could react two more were thrust his way, one at the throat and another at the chest.

"You are not known in these lands, thus you are an enemy." A voice called mockingly. "You have strange attire about you, and that thing on your face... Who are you allied with?"

Zell remained silent, he read the mans features and was certain he had never seen him before. All his focus was on the three scythe-like blades that held him in check. One rear headbutt might give him chance to drop and roll. It was primitive but no other option was open to him.

"I ask again, who are you allied to? Did Hyne send you into our midst?" The name shocked Zell. Hyne was the name given to the source of Rinoa's powers, what did he have to do with this place?

"No, I'm just SeeD."

A puzzled look filled his captor's face. "SeeD? What is SeeD?" Zell frowned, this place was truly nowhere, if it didn't know of SeeD.

"I say we kill him!" One of the guards yelled.

"No! He has done nothing, save for defend himself. Plus, what is SeeD? If it is a new legion for Hyne then our lord must know what he faces. It is decided, we take him to Vascaroon." The trio prodded Zell forwards, who simply began at a limp pace. Hyne and Vascaroon... Just where the hell was he?

* * *

Squall was uncomfortably aware of the mirror as he began to prepare himself for the coming conference. He didn't like the uniform, it was itchy and the many extra pieces of metal weighed it down against the skin. Rinoa, however, was insistent that he don the SeeD outfit one final time. Only so much nagging could be taken before it grated on the soul.

While buttoning the white shirt into place, he began to look at his reflection. The scar still cut across the centre of his face from left to right, the three inch wound that had been inflicted by his long-time rival Seifer Almasy. The deep blue eyes still had the menacing focus that had made him every inch the lion in his own eyes. Though they had failed to intimidate those who surrounded him daily. The brown hair was carefully side combed, edges just kissing the collar of his shirt.

The uniform felt heavy as he looped the jacket onto his shoulders. Warily he guided the zipper along the central seem, closing the outer layer. He shuddered then, the words of Kadowaki's brief mere moments ago cutting through him again. It was extra ammunition for the conference. In the twenty-four hours that the infected had been attended. One had begun to decay at an accelerated rate. Though the Doctor wished to be a part of the conference, Squall overrode her wishes, adamant that the SeeDs in question needed the best medical care round the clock.

Slowly he looped the final layer of the uniform into place, the freshly starched material resembling some form of armour. Thick metal rings forming an elegant pattern that resembled ancient chain mail. Raising his eyes to the glass he drank in the image before him. The thick combed hair resembling a mane, while his black uniform radiated power, the silvered metal adornments adding a shine of nobility. Rinoa had been right, this was the look he needed when speaking with President Loire. Swiftly he knocked back a small glass of water and walked free of his dormitory. It was a meeting he dreaded, but the greater good dictated it. Swallowing his pride, Squall began the long stroll to the deck.

* * *

Selphie sat in the Doctor's chair, the yellow dungarees hanging limply. Her weapon was resting carefully in the special holster that went across her waist. Designed so that in an instant the shinobou could be in her hands. Despite her bright appearance and unusual hairstyle, she felt ignored.

Impatience rattled her cage with every passing second. Ever since Squall had given the orders, she had been forced to wait on the Doctor. What with the students being infected and everything, naturally the medical staff had little time for her. The impatience turned to frustration, what purpose was this serving the students? She was the festival committee, the fun side of the Garden.

Instantly the flash of inspiration hit her, Squall wanted to avoid panic and what better way to do that than distracting the students? No one liked being cut out and avoided. The corridors had been crowded by confused students, all affraid at this anonymous threat. Squall and Xu were right to cut them from the loop, but wrong to shut them out entirely!

Pulling a pad from the desk she began to make her own notes. Squall wanted her to be some form of medical support. But in her eyes the order could swivel, more than enough staff were on site already, with full lockdown they wouldn't need a patrol doing it.

"Woo-hoo!" She shouted as the second brainwave hit her. Her chin length hair shaking as she shivered with the adrenaline. Ever since Garden and Esthar had agreed the surveillance of the sorceress, it meant they had bio-metric systems in place at the Garden. It would need some ironing out, and technology was not her best suit. But it would work, the students could relax and the job could be done.

She giggled. "Irvy would be so proud, this is gonna be great!" She beamed with an enthusiastic smile. Scribbling furious and badly drawn images, the bright SeeD set about the planning...

* * *

"You look wonderful." Rinoa purred as Squall walked from the elevator. "Every inch the man in charge," she added with a wink.

Squall nodded. "I just hope it cuts through the ice; this isn't the type of thing I intended to be doing tonight. But if they can help, then we have to take what they can offer." He embraced her softly, "this is an official conference ok? No first names and no over-arching friendliness either. We need to get them on our side, but taking advantage of family ties is not the way we do it."

She pulled back. "Won't it be better to bridge the gap?"

Squall shook his head. "Not the time, and never the place. They're waiting on us, let's go."

She sighed but said no more, together they walked along the narrow corridor of the bridge and into the conference room. It was ordered as an extra room by Squall once he took command, the room allowed up to seven people visible communication with anyone at the other end. Derided as a waste of resources and hopelessly ambitious, Squall was rewarded by the efforts of Zell and the technology team. Contractees appreciate face to face meetings, and the room allowed for such events as this. Long distance communication with little time or effort.

Squall authoritatively strode to the centre of the front desk, calmly he slid into the leather chair and adjusted the microphone towards his mouth. Rinoa, his chosen support for the call, sat to his right, making sure that her dazzling white dress and smile were fully visible.

Squall coughed. "Main screen hail, code GX-ES-1, Esthar, do you respond?" He called coldly, the voice clear and loud. Bleeping sounds crept from the many fast modems before the screen burst into an image.

_"Navigator code accepted, Access Level 1-A, connecting."_ The system responded with a lifeless tone. Squall frowned; if they were ready, then they had fired up their security systems. Rinoa stroked his arm soothingly, sensing his annoyance level rising.

Together they watched the screen, the huge Estharian logo filling the sixty inch screen. A colossal circular diagram, fully shaded in black. Atop the black filling was a crescent moon, the points resembling spikes. Inside the curve of the moon was a five pointed star, the image white and radiant. Underneath was a structure shaped like a trapezium; it was similar to the design of the sorceress memorial. Esthar seemingly wanted to press home its stance on Sorceresses and the power they had inherited from Hyne.

Suddenly the image faded and they were granted a view of the large office at the other end. The hazy lighting still caused his senses to swim. When they had first stepped into that office six months eariler, Squall had thought they'd somehow walked into the centre of a sunset; a delightful fusion of blue, red and purple collesced off the walls and the floor. At the back of the feed was the curved walkway that led up onto the high balconies over the Presidential suite.

"Announcing President Laguna Loire." A familiar voice suddenly cut in. The pair watched as the aide Kiros stepped into sight. The elegant white and brown robe stretched to his ankles, while the three braids were hidden from view by the matching hat.

Squall stood while Rinoa swiftly followed suit and the pair mirrored an elegant saltue. Kiros bowed and walked to a nearby sofa. The pair continued the salute as a mark of respect. Then he emerged; the black hair scruffily hung towards one side, frizzy and bedraggled. It was as if he had just climbed out of bed. The image was compounded further by the attire that he wore. The green t-shirt was slightly stained with sweat, and the black trousers had begun to fade to a more charcoal shade. Squall found it hard to believe that this was one of the most powerful figures in the current world.

"President Loire thank you for accepting this conference request." Squall began in the official tone.

"It's no problem Squall, been a while since we talked."

"I appreciate your desire for a personal touch to this call, but I must insist that you show the same respect for my position that I do yours." Rinoa cleared her throat audibly and aimed an elbow to his chest. Squall ignored the impact.

The President swallowed quietly. "As you wish Commander Leonhart. What can the Esthar people do for you?"

"Mr President at 02:00 hours a SeeD team were admitted to our Garden infirmary, they are currently listed in critical condition. Our Head Doctor, Kadowaki, has determined that they are suffering some form of virus. We are asking for assistance."

"Virus? What sort of effect is it having?" President Laguna asked.

"So far it mirrors the decay of a human body, only from both the inside and outside. We have medical staff on round the clock watch of the patients, while a full scale lockdown of our Garden is in place." Squall surmised.

"This is terrible news! You say you want our help? If you have a lockdown then we can't have our Doctors coming to your aid."

"Mr President this is not about medical assistance, I have full faith in our on-site staff. And you are right, with the lockdown and mysterious nature of this virus, admitting your top men to our facility will place them at risk. The assistance we need, is in relation to the mission itself."

"Commander, we don't have your files, how can we help there?" Kiros interjected.

"The infected returned from a mission that was apparently ordered by the Shumi tribe, though we have reason to dispute that being the truth. As that may be, they needed a team to carry out surveillance of recent activity on a penninsula East of the Shumi village. The site in question was given the name 'Adellone' in the orders." Squall watched the President blanch. Disappointingly it seemed that a few traits of his father showed in him, Laguna responded the same way. The name was all too recognisable.

"We know the sorceress war ended over ten years ago." Rinoa added, "but that name sounds like it was from then."

"With all due respect Commander." Kiros began, "this country is well aware of the Sorceress War. All sites involving it on the Esthar side were shut down."

Squall's eyes narrowed. "Thank you very much, Aide. However, this conference is of critical concern to the students of Garden. What we ask is that the Esthar government looks into all information of this site."

"Kiros is right to point out that all sites were disbanded, an order signed by myself made it happen." Laguna said. "We're as shocked as you, and will gladly check all our records. But between you and me, Commander, anything involving Ellone is worthy of my full attention. You have our support."

"Thank you Mr President, any findings at all will be greatly recieved. I can be reached personally at any time, I will have the channel open at priority A." The image faded with no hint of a goodbye. Squall sighed and sank into the soft leather.

"You were harsh on him, he tried Squall!" Rinoa seethed.

Squall shook his head. "We have lives at stake, Rinoa; you said it yourself. This isn't about making things better between the pair of us. It's about stopping this virus, whatever it takes." He sighed and turned to her. "It's getting late. We should both rest. I'll be in my room if you want me."

Rinoa watched him leave; scowling at his back even after he'd left her alone. "Damn you Squall! Why must you be so stubborn?" She shouted after him, before following in his wake.

* * *

All sense of fatigue that she had sustained from the twenty-hour day had evaporated. The conversation with Squall fired an energy through her. Driven by worry she had returned to the infirmary, the patient had drifted further towards decay. The lifeless machines had beeped and screeched incessantly.

It was a battle that she was losing, a situation she had never faced before. Even when she served in the naval outposts of Dollet, she had not seen anything of this scale. A severed limb, severe burns, or even a breached birth were easy meat for the plump Doctor. But to watch as students just drifted, their bodies constantly decaying, it was enough to make he contemplate throwing in the towel.

She sniffed back tears and looked at the photo of Cid on her desk. A smile coursed through the full lips then, if there was anyone who showed what a difficult could do to you. It was the former Garden Headmaster. Everyone had expected calls for his head when he vanished from the assault on Edea. Yet the pupils stood behind him, it was an impossible decision.

"But you're not asking someone to kill your husband." She intoned to herself. "This is a matter of life and death, you are the only one who can stand a chance of stopping it!"

The speech had helped her focus. Desperately in the last two hours she had hooked students up to numerous IV's, coursing fresh blood into the stricken forms. As expected there was little improvement, but the increased chances played to her strengths.

All of that was shattered as the machine sounded a long beep. "He's flatlining!" She called, all medical staff instantly joined her at bedside. Feeling for the heart she put her hands in place. "One breath for each five compressions," she ordered. Instantly the orderly took a deep breath into the patients mouth, Kadowaki followed up with five swift and steady compressions before the orderly repeated the breath. For sixty seconds they continued, the single beeping sound digging into their minds.

"Doctor we need to try and bring him back!" Another orderly called from next to the IV. "The adrenaline and CPR are not working."

"We'll try defibrilating!" She barked, while continuing the CPR. Two orderlies wheeled the device into place. One focusing on hooking up the machine, while the other laced the shock pads over the chest.

"Online Doctor." The figure called.

Swiftly she grasped the pads. "Charge to 300 joules." A sharp whirring came from the machine before it gave a bleeping sound three times. "Clear!" She yelled before plunging the pads to the chest. A violent snap sounded from the body as it bounced up from the bed with the force of the shock.

"No response, charge to 320 Joules." Kadowaki commanded, swallowing her fear she waited for the sound. "Clear!" Again she thrust the charge into the body, watching desperately as it spasmed lifelessly. "Dammit come on!" She willed at the patient.

"Still flatline," a fellow Doctor intoned lifelessly.

"360 Joules!" She snapped, the orderly obeyed immediately. "Clear!" The body bounced once more, but the machine still bleeped a single time, no heartbeat registered. Her head dropped in despair.

"Call it." The other Doctor calmly pointed.

Kadowaki looked at the watch on her uniform. "23:11... Time of death." As the words hammered home, the machines were switched off. She drifted wearily before a sudden thought hit her. "You!" She commanded, pointing at the first orderly.

"Yes... Ma'am?" He answered nervously.

"CPR, you contacted the patient!" Horror flowed through her. "Isolate this orderly immediately!" Instantly three of the doctors grasped the man, who resisted fiercly.

"I was just following orders!" He screamed.

Kadowaki hid her disgust. "And it might be nothing, but until we have all clear, you have to be isolated." She turned away and placed her head in her hands, "move the body to the mortuary. I wish to carry out a full autopsy as soon as possible." She waited until the movement filled her ears, once alone she slammed her hands on her desk. "Idiot!" She yelled at herself, while blinking back tears...


	3. Blackout

Chapter 3 - Blackout

Irvine watched as his group gathered in front of the large SUV; the land was a strange fusion of two different worlds. Lush green pastures stretched for miles across the continent and further to the north were a pair of twin mountain ranges, each with snow capped crags. The ranges flowed like a snaking route to them and from above it looked as if one were staring at a pair of reptiles clawing their way across the island. The reeds of the grass had a desolate blue twinge to them, as if they had been frozen in time.

The sharp shooter ignored his surroundings, staring through the long lenses of the binoculars, that he had up to his eyes, looking across the flat land that fell in between the colossal bluffs. Little more than a faint and blued vision of the horizon, was the target island. Through the eyes of the shooter, the land looked ethereal and daunting, a sense of foreboding caused concern to course through him; what missions had the elders set his allies on that could have them return home in such a way?

"Winter island, home of the Shumi, lies across the northern plains. Through the ranges ahead," he commanded, marshalling the unit.

"Why the hell would they choose to live in such a cold world?" One student asked, teeth chattering slightly.

"They need solitude." Irvine announced abruptly. "And besides, they don't live on the surface, they live underground."

The sharpshooter had hoped that his answer would appease the student's question. Unfortunately, he had started something else instead.

"That lot must have a major problem with other people to isolate themselves. We at least interact with other continents!" A young SeeD spat angrily.

"They grow on their own." Irvine added, cutting across the impromptu discussion. "Take a look at Esthar, they isolated themselves for nearly twenty years."

"But eventually, even Esthar opened their borders to outsiders again," another SeeD cut in. "Even Commander Leonhart isn't as isolated as the Shumi!"

Irvine sighed, casually allowing the binoculars to fall into the centre of his chest, hanging carelessly on a leather thong. "Either way, none of us will know what happened to Zell's crew until we talk with them. First, we drive past the range to the northern coast, and from there we find our way to the island. Move out!"

He turned back to the coast as the group finished gathering up the equipment for the journey ahead. Irvine's eyes drank in the ship they had used to cross from Balamb to Trabia; he had hoped they could use it to go further north. Unfortunately, the sharp prow was designed from swift travel through oceanic waters. Because Trabia was infamous for both its snowy surroundings, and the falout of the first lunar cry. A ship like this would be smashed against any icecaps in the area.

A sudden doubt crossed his mind; his crew were going to repeat Zell's last journey, but what kind of evil had gathered here? Was the same thing going to happen to him? Become some decaying lifeless vegetable on an infirmary slab? Starved of answers, he strode to the passenger side of the SUV. With a jolt they surged forwards, throwing churned grass and ice into the air.

* * *

The black and clear night that hung over the balcony, matched his mood in every way. For the last hour he had stood on the veranda, his vision staring at an impressive view of the future city. His thoughts not caring that he had been asked to investigate the incident at the garden. The magnificent city looked even more breathtaking by twilight; the gigantic towers of glass and metal reflecting the starlight like a thousand mirrors, radiating awe amongst the world.

Laguna turned his eyes to the stars, the shafts of light perforated through the dark veil of the world above. Yet they could not pierce the sudden anger in his mind.

"How dare he?" Laguna suddenly cut in. "How _dare _he? He just thrust himself in like that, all official, like as if we were nothing but one-time acquaintances!" He slammed his fist against the guard rail, ignoring the sting of pain that went up along his arm. As easy as that was, he couldn't ignore the sudden pain as his leg seized up with a muscle cramp, and cursed as he bent down to rub at it, willing the pain to go away.

Kiros watched on silently. Usually, whenever Laguna let his temper take full control of his thoughts, all it took were a few jokes and he'd snap out of it. But this time it was far more personal. Kiros was no idiot and wisely opted to keep his mouth shut, just as Ward had grown acustomed to.

The angry words brought back memories of the time where Laguna had bit the bullet and faced his son for the first time. Ellone had always petitioned him about Winhill; begging him to return to Raine and the family he had left behind; to meet the son that was to be born to him. For President Laguna though, the importance of salvation for Esthar had blinded him. Laguna never had the time to be more than the uncle she had always known him as.

It hadn't been until the President faced Garden's Commander for the first time, that he realised he was standing face to face with the flesh and blood he never knew. His eyes had possessed a glow that instantly brought back the image of his dead wife. Ward had spotted it right away, with Kiros mouthing the words of how Squall should be grateful he took after his mother in appearance. Laguna was just grateful that the SeeD did not pick up one what he meant right away. He couldn't tell him the truth with such a huge mission looming ahead, but he had made the effort to try; he'd even promised him a talk when it all ended.

Looking down upon the office once again, he failed to take in the breathtaking view of the guards on patrol, but instead saw the pair of them - estranged father and son - standing face to face, the curved path to the balcony glistening from the starlight, much like tonight.

_"Commander Squall Leonhart reporting Mr President."_

Laguna winced at the formal introduction, this was not the time or the place. _"Laguna, please, let's have a night off from all that yeah?"_ Laguna watched his son's face drop in confusion and felt a little sheepish. He was a soldier too, no one addressed an important figure by first name, but Squall would understand as he explained. _"I asked you here... Well... I did say we should have a talk once this all ended didn't I?"_ Laguna watched himself, the leg growing ever more solid as the conversation took hold. _"Thank you for all that SeeD pulled off." _He added lamely.

_"It's just our job, everyone lived." _The teenager responded with a neutral shrug of the shoulders.

_"You're not wrong there," _Laguna argued. _ "You guys are really something. How can you have such focus? You just dived straight in, no holding back, no hesitating... It was incredible."_

_"Is this all we are going to talk about?" _Squall had asked, an eyebrow raised._ "SeeD do not have time to throw away on congratulations, the contract asked for Ultimecia to be eradicated, it happened. Why all the fuss?"_

_"Well... Ow!"_ The SeeD had shaken his head as Laguna staggered around the office, carried on by a painful limp as he attempted to clear the cramp. Once he had felt the twinge in his calves pass by, Laguna managed to stand up straight. Though a desire to simply vanish from sight clouded his thoughts. "_Squall... You grew up in the orphanage in Centra, along with Ellone right?"_

Squall looked surprised when he mentioned this, Laguna forced himself to trudge on, knowing that his courage would fail him if he didn't. _ "Well... Ellone ended up there because the woman she was staying with... Died, suddenly." _

_"You're talking about Raine, right?"_ Squall interjected. Laguna winced again; it had been a very long time since he'd even heard her name spoken. It was still too painful to talk about her, but the Commander had a right to hear him out.

_"That woman had been pregnant and gave birth just six months earlier... She was your mother Squall... She was also my wife."_

With great difficulty Laguna turned from the room that had taken place in months earlier. Instead he he returned to stargazing. "You know, he's right in a sense. I never did enough."

"Laguna you know that you..."

"No Kiros! I _know_ I didn't. Don't try to make excuses for me; I sent Ellone back to Winhill _alone_. I could have gone with her, but I didn't. After Raine died, there might not have been anyone else who could have protected her. What if something had happened because I wasn't there? I _let_ her become an orphan and I _let_ my own son go with her!""

"Laguna... It's in the past, we've said it before these things take time. At the very least you're protecting her now. She still has that loving eye for you man, and Squall will find it too someday. You helping this whole disaster come under control is just the beginning."

Laguna glanced at Ward who snorted and folded his arms. "Heh, you always were too abrupt Ward. Still, you're not wrong, we gotta do _something_... Did any of you think he was tense?" The pair blanched at the question. "I know I was, Adellone, what kind of site could that be?"

"Odine might have an idea, that freak was all over her in the war." Kiros suggested.

Laguna nodded. "Fetch him and all the files on the places we disbanded, we've got a lot of cross referencing to do!" He stared across the balcony one last time before stalking back to the Presidential office.

* * *

The conference room on the upper deck of Garden had taken on a more official look as the meeting opened. Squall had ordered a swift reconfiguration of the room so that there was now a single oval table in the middle. Seated around it were all members of the facility that he had called in.

Quistis and Xu had opened the meeting, their discussion a full brief on the status of Garden's defense. Commander Leonhart had been impressed with the points raised; the main entrances guarded by restricted airlocks one he definitely took a shine to. On questioning from the other members, the group had also learned that all emergency exits and any routes out of garden were under lock down. Even the toilet systems had been guarded by emergency filters that would only allow the passage of waste.

As soon as the pair had finished Squall prepared to open the main point of the conference, when he was shocked by the bright and chirpy request to speak. Selphie stood up from her chair with a toothy grin and pleaded to be allowed to make a request before they discussed the main piece on the agenda. Taken aback, Squall nodded.

"Thank you Commander." She announced politely. "As we know, I have been placed on medical duty with Doctor Kadowaki. But, since the virus has grown worse, quarantine has been boosted even further. As a transfer student with no commander rank, I have been forced into the medical supply offices in the rear of the library."

Squall raised an eyebrow. "So you want clearance to get inside? No trouble, a simple..."

"That's not it!" Selphie suddenly squealed, causing the members to lean back in surprise. "That time in the office got me thinking about something. What you wanted, Squall, was for me to profile students in case of outbreak?"

He nodded and she smiled. "Well, I have a great idea. Right now our students are confused, and it's our job to brighten the spirits!"

"What are you talking about?" Quistis suddenly cut in. "You said yourself, profiling in case of outbreak?! What has that to do with raising spirits?"

"They need to work with us, confused people don't do that." Selphie added defensively.

"She's right." Rinoa cut in, "we need them to think nothing is wrong, if they go to a regular event they'll co-operate."

"Too many people." Xu announced. "If we have three hundred students in one place, one word of medical profiling will cause a riot."

"Who they'd know about it?" Selphie added with a sly grin. "They'd just think it was a party! And while everyone's having a blast, we can use the bio-metric system..."

"Absolutely out of the question!" Quistis yelled. "That system is our peace agreement with Esthar, the Commander worked hard to get them on our side. If they see a glitch in the system they could declare war on us!"

"Sir Laguna won't react like that," Selphie waved off. "He's kind and thoughtful, caring and..."

"Stop daydreaming!" Quistis shouted.

Squall arose and held out a hand. "Enough, stand down the pair of you."

A tense silence gripped the air before they slid back into their seats. "Quistis, I agree with you, that system is a peace agreement to prevent any form of sorceress problems arising..."

He felt nails dig into his left wrist and did his best to conceal the sudden blast of pain in his palms. "However, they did not say they had to be focused solely on Rinoa. Which is where I agree with Selphie's argument."

"Going against Esthar..." Quistis faltered.

Squall nodded. "I mknow what you are saying, but this is a crisis situation. We are not just an ordinary Garden now, we need to do everything to contain this virus. The bio-metric plan is a great one since we can scan hundreds of students at once."

"If we scan them together and one is infected, then we infect hundreds." Xu chipped in, "we can't afford to take the risk."

Selphie quickly drew a poorly drawn diagram. and held it up for everyone to see. "Sorry, art isn't exactly my strong suit. But the main design will work."

She pointed at the bridge to the quad. "If the scanners are concealed in the fountain statues, students won't know they are passing through anything..." Swiftly she drew an arrow along the diagram. "At the doors we can have a set of false doors. If someone's infected, then they'll move through the false doors and continue through the subsidiary tunnels of the infirmary, where they can be treated. If not, onto the party."

Stunned silence filled the conference room. It was a ridiculously simple and basic plan. Yet, it made perfect sense. It eliminated all way for multiple infection, the queues would build up anticipation for a big show. Thus no one would mind the wait. Best of all students would be in one place, meaning roll calls would be simple.

Squall nodded. "It is a great plan, Xu, Quistis, you are to work with her; fine tune as much as you can in order to make sure it works as it should. This has to be foolproof. If one hint of panic at being led towards the infirmary occurs, the whole plan will fall flat. We can't let that happen."

The pair nodded in response. "Well, with that unexpected discussion out of the way. We'll move onto the main reason for me calling you all here."

One figure stood up unannounced. "You don't need me here Squall; I should be doing somehting more important."

Squall beckoned him to sit. "There is no where else I need you now Nida." He reassured the student. "The main point needs your input probably more than anyone."

All eyes bore a confused look. "When I last broadcast to the students about the crisis situation, I mentioned how we would move to more secure site in the coming days. Now that we have full lockdown, Irvine's team was sent out of the Garden in secret and the Esthar government looking into 'Adellone'... We have to decide on a definite location and move. I want your suggestions."

Selphie shook her head. "I am clueless at geography, no idea where would be good at all!" Squall nodded and she fell silent.

"We need to be isolated and away from the Virus origin right?" Quistis asked. "Then we are probably best off going far to the south. Winter island and the Trabian continent are where this virus was brought back from."

"Where you thinking?" Nida replied.

"Centra." Quistis abruptly answered. "The only residents of that island were the Kramers and the GF Odin. If we ground Garden within the ranges of Centra, we'll be safe from almost any form of attack and civilisation."

Nida shook his head. "That's not good enough, we have to think of ourselves too. How long are we going dark for?" No answer met his question. "That's the problem, we may have to spend months in the new location, we have to be somewhere that can give us supplies and grant no risk."

"Nowhere offers that." Xu overlapped. "If we beach next to a town then the residents will get curious eventually. Rumour and panic will spread their way."

Nida smiled. "I never said we should beach. I can pilot this thing anywhere, what I suggest is that we don't stop!" Gasps sounded from nearly all at the table. The Commander, however, remained silent. "Think about it, if we're constantly on the move then we can avoid settlements getting edgy, infections occurring, any of that."

"We are thinking too much about the towns." Rinoa chipped in. "The Garden can go nearly anywhere right?" Nida nodded. "It can also drop anchor anywhere too? Then why don't we simply have a spot in the ocean? Drop anchor miles from the nearest town and live that way?"

All fell silent as they pondered the suggestion. Nida's plan had merit because it eliminated any problems from settling the virus near to civilisation, but had weaknesses in that supplies could get limited. Rinoa's got rid of the supplies problem, but where on the ocean could be close enough?

"Where are you thinking of us dropping anchor?" Nida asked. "Bear in mind, we have people dying in the infirmary."

Rinoa pondered for a moment before smiling. "The railway station." Puzzled glances filled the air, "the empty station."

Squall nodded. "I know where you mean, just before the great salt lake?" Rinoa smiled.

Nida winked. "You're clever, we'd be miles from the nearest place then."

"Esthar and Fisherman's Horizon are within sailing distance, in Esthar's case they may even fly the supplies out." Quistis added.

"It's good for morale too." Xu jumped in. "It's not too different from here, home from home."

"It's decided, we drop anchor near the disused railway station." Squall announced. "I shall go on air with the news of the move in a moment. Meantime Selphie, give me a time frame for this concert, I'll need the techs to realign the biometric system before it goes ahead." She nodded, and Squall silently led the exodus from the conference room.

* * *

It was close to midnight as the figure enjoyed the hospitality that he found himself within. His gold rimmed reading glasses hung just on the lip of the bridge to his nose. To any outsider, he would have looked like their ancient grandfather; dark hair, ruffled and unkempt, adorned his head, though he could see streaks of silver were beginning to show at the roots.

Thick wrinkles crossed his face in patterns, all randomly intertwining and granting contours to his face. It was the signature of his years, fifty and counting. Looking at his reflection in the window, Cid Kramer took in the sight. His red waistcoat was buttoned elegantly, smooth ivory stones holding it in place, though holes had bore their way through many of the seams. Underneath was a black shirt, though he wore no tie, it was far too late to worry about looking official.

The figure chuckled to himself, the look did not matter, at least not now. Too much had changed for such ephemeral things to be the epicentre of his consciousness. Instead, his eyes drifted to the pile of papers that sat on the table. Paperwork had always seem to pile up around him, even after relinquishing control to Squall, the pen still ran dry constantly.

The former Headmaster ignored the immediate task and reached for the china pot at the centre of the round table. A smug smile filled his lips, as he looked out of the window over the sparkling city of Deling; high in the mansion on the hill, overlooking the swarming morass of faceless people. In this moment he was royalty, and the peasants would bow to him.

A bellowing laugh exploded from him as he poured the early grey into the thin china cup. Nothing could be further from the truth, royalty wouldn't be responsible for letting the madness begin in the first place. He sighed then, Squall had not stopped since the second sorceress war had ended. Esthar, the people of the future, had been a difficult ally to befriend, even if Garden had been the ones to free them from the grasp of sorcery a second time.

Cid knew why of course, it was because of Rinoa. For the first time in their two hundred year history - four hundred if the time of Hyne was to be included - Esthar was allying with a sorceress to defeat the powers of sorcery. Many denounced President Loire as mad, while Squall had the same problem; if he loved her so much, how could he risk her being involved in a treaty with those who had such a history with the power behind the sorcery?

Behind him the door creaked open and Cid slowly set the steaming cup down onto the table. Turning, Cid watched as the figure walked in. He still wore the blue suit of the Galbadian military, large medals pinned to the left side of the chest. His black hair was cropped in a very short style and in his hand was a very large bottle of dark brown liquor. Cid sighed, the General had been at another of the functions between officers of the military.

"Was the officer's ball as grand as expected?" Cid asked, before taking a small sip of his tea. Caraway slumped into a seat opposite him, despite the official medals. The former Headmaster caught the scent of whisky on the General's breath. Evidently he had allowed the freedom of the function to get to him a little more than he wanted.

"It was... The usual." A slight hic-cup followed the response. "Three hours dancing... Four hours brown-nosing."

Cid chuckled. "That reminds me of the great SeeD graduation balls." He sipped more tea, "you'd be sat entertaining the officers as the graduates took to the floor in celebration. Then one would slide into a vacant chair and beg to be looked at really well when it came to the first assignments."

Caraway smiled. "Ah the SeeD's..." Cid watched as he necked a neat serving of the liquor straight from the bottle. "Always working... Going on their own autonomy."

"It's what makes them the best of the best." Cid replied, "thank you again for allowing me to stay here with you during this assignment. Though I would have been just as happy at the hotel."

Caraway shook his head. "Won't hear of it!" He imbibed more whisky, "you'll be too easy a target... In some place like that."

" I doubt that, everyone knows that I'm simply the go between, the true authority is the coalition between Balamb and Esthar. Taking me hostage would simply mean another figure being brought into place."

"Come on Cid..." Caraway choked in reply. "You're off the record now... Tell me... What do you really think of this? It seems a... Bit heavy."

Cid shook his head. "There is nothing heavy about it at all. Squall is right, we have to discharge the Galabadian Garden. I don't know why you are so nervous, you are gaining all the elite SeeD's for your armed forces. An uprising must not occur again."

"Pah you always were that way!" Caraway spat, before swallowing more alcohol. "I love Rinoa... But... She has that power... I am scared Cid. Scared that Squall is... Removing a barrier from her... If she too loses control."

Cid's eyes narrowed. "If you doubt your own daughter, then I'm affraid I must say you're a bad father, General. Rinoa has always needed love and support, yet you tried to lock her in a cage. That led to her inheriting the greatest power there is. She needs your love."

Caraway sighed. "I do... I love her more than life... But you of all... People... Should know how dangerous... Sorcery is."

"How dare you?!" Cid roared, slamming the china cup into the table, shattering it into shards. "My wife is working hard to make your daughter great, it is precisely that attitude which caused her to nearly lose her life in space! People who doubt, who fear and go against her, all because of what she has become. Such people are prejudicial beyond words. You should learn to support your child unconditionally, and the very idea of knowing that you can't put that behind you; makes me sick!"

Without thought for the reply the General may have given. Cid stormed from the room, towards the guest stairwell at the rear of the outer hall.

* * *

The warrior sat with his head facing the dirt floor of the elegant pavillion. At times like this, Zell knew that silence was the greatest weapon he could have. Ever since the mistake in Timber, all SeeD's had been given the iron code for such times.

_"When captured, say nothing, do nothing, see everything. If necessary, give your life for the cause."_ Those words echoed in his mind like a vision from some distant future.

Yet the words were true, thus he listened. The guards were busy regaling the tale of his arrest to their leader. He had deliberately avoided all eye contact, the man was not going to see his face until it was on his terms.

_"Show him to me."_ Zell gulped as the men pulled him from the floor. He felt his shoulders jerk in their sockets, with his arms bound tightly behind his back there was nothing he could do to free himself. Carefully he slipped his palms open, waiting for the opportunity to untie the knots, even if it meant sawing through the twine with his nails.

As he adjusted his eyes to the setting, the tribal warrior drank in the man's luxury lifestyle. A magnificent four poster bed had been erected on the ground, while a huge trunk was stuffed with clothing.; white and dark shawls made from an assortment of satins and silks, all of which had matching head scarves.

Looking away from the elegance of the room, Zell focused on the man himself. He wore a thick mask that covered the top half of his face. The eyes showing through specially prepared slits. The mask had a magnificent set of jewels where the forehead was. He could recognise the garnet and emerald crests, but at the centre was a jewel he couldn't identify.

The figure wore a long robe of white silk that end at his ankles, it covered every inch of his skin, as though it were a protective blanket rather than clothing. What did catch Zell's eye was the way that the hands were decorated with images similar to that on his face. Though instead of being created from the jet black ink that he had used, the man before him, had images crafted from a subtle red. The design itself reflecting that of vines intertwining, rather than the lines of strength that had been scarred into his own skin.

"You are an enigma to me." He began, Zell simply listened, observed him, waiting for his moment. "My men were bleating about how they defeated you, and yet, it seems there is an inner strength in you they could not see. You carry knives, yet never even reached for them. Tell me, why would a warrior do such a thing?"

For a long moment neither of them spoke, Zell felt the piercing gaze behind the venetian mask scouring through his soul. His defiance spurred him on at first, Zell would not let his Garden down again. The man would know nothing, yet... The question would not go unanswered, as the man before him reflected the same defiance right back.

"I fight with my fists." Zell responded swiftly, leaving out as much as he could.

"Then I ask again, why carry something you will not use?"

"Just who are you? I heard a name, Vascaroon, but I don't know of you." Zell countered.

"You have great spirit." The laughed outright. "I shall enjoy dancing long into the night with these questions."

The leader gestured at his men, "leave us, I wish to speak alone with him." Strangely all six of the sentries saluted at exactly the same time before filing out of the tent. With them all being of similar height, Zell thought he had witnessed some illusion.

"I am a patient man, my friend, but please, don't refute my questions..." With a speed that beggared belief, Vascaroon had rushed forwards, his movement blurring like it fell in and out of existence. Zell felt the knife slide against his throat, while a second hovered above his eye.

"You see, we share a couple of things, one of which is speed. Before your heart beats once, I could have you blinded! So answer me, why carry what you do not use?"

"I don't know!" Zell screamed suddenly. "Hell, I don't even know where I am!"

Vascaroon pulled the knife away and slowly beckoned for him to move towards the throne once more. Sitting himself down elegantly he looked at Zell again. As he saw the widened pupils and sweat on the warrior's brow, he knew that he wasn't lying. Yet, how could that be?

"My men said that you told them you were SeeD or some other clan. I have never heard of those people, tell me more about them." Vascaroon ordered.

Zell took a light breath. "SeeD, people like me, travel by nature. We are all hardened fighters, mercenaries... People for hire."

"We're you for hire in these lands?"

"I don't even know this place! I was last near a snowy mountain, on my knees in pain. Now somehow I am here, I remember nothing!"

Vascaroon nodded. "I believe you. But I am intrigued, whatever caused this is something of a great power, tell me... Did you encounter one called Hyne?"

Zell feigned a great struggle, the ploy was working. At least, the ploy that made sense. He had to make the man believe he had no memory of how he got here, and that was true. But how that happened still made no sense, as his memories did not tie together. If the stranger could create something plausible out of nothing, that fitted together; he'd go with it, if only to give himself a chance later on.

"I... Can't... Can't remember... I was with my people... Then I was taken."

"You have been a victim to his tyranny as well. He has spirited you away from those you know, thrust you deep into this unknown universe. You say that SeeD are mercenaries for hire?" Zell nodded, "then would you want revenge?"

Zell put on a scowl. "If you want his head on a plate then I'll get it for you!"

Vacaroon smiled. "Not so fast, before you can pledge allegiance, I want to see more of your talents. You shall face one of my men in a battle, rules will be explained later. Consider it a duel of honour, do you accept?"

Zell frowned for a second until he thought again of Squall. In the past, no matter how difficult, his commander had never spurned a challenge. Even if it were the constant harrassment from Seifer. For Garden, for Squall and for himself, Zell had to be strong.

"I accept your challenge Lord Vascaroon." Zell replied with a bow.

"Tomorrow at dawn." The ruler whistled loudly through his fingers and three guards entered the pavillion. "Place him in a tent of his own, and tie him down. Tomorrow he faces a stern test to determine his fate." The sentries grinned as they hauled him from the pavillion, the Lord meanwhile looked at the circle of sand on the plain. Wondering what way the warriors should meet their fates before his very eyes.

* * *

A black night hung over the city, it made him alert, from within the shadows any figures could be watching. Calmly he checked his backtrail, making certain that no one could see the open vent shaft that led to the roof. He combed the top of the building, searching behind every cleft, turret and hollow, constantly seeking any who would report the conversation. Once satisfied that he was alone, the near invisible figure pulled clear a strange looking phone.

It harked back to the early days of mobile technology, the handset being easily eight inches in length. As black as the night he was standing under, the communicator looked awkward and ill fitting next to his jaw-line. At the top of the handset was a solid aerial that swung on a hinge like cantelever bridge. Carefully he set it into place at an angle of one hundred degrees, making it look like the aerial extended through the top of his head.

Patiently he rang the long dialling code, adding the extra digits that would allow the signal to be scrambled in case of a back trace being ran on the call. For the next thirty seconds the line pulsed into his ear, a sharp single noise that pierced through his eardrums. He grew impatient, the call was expected, scheduled so that no cover could be broken. As he made to cut the call off, the ringing pulse ceased and he heard the sound of background noise.

"Heaven opens." The figure announced clearly.

_"Angels fly." _Came the retort, he smiled, the code word meant that his target was free to take the call.

"You took your time picking up, is the area clear?"

_"I had to make sure I was surrounded by enough noise, I don't have a satellite phone which can scramble sequences at my end. I apologise sir."_

The man nodded to himself. "That's good, precautions are necessary for the plan to work. Give me a status update on the site."

_"The infected have been in treatment for over 24 hours now. One of them has died, but the other six are under medical supervision."_

"Good, so the timetable is as we suspected. I am pleased that the virus has been able to endure so long and remain so effective. Have they managed a formal autopsy?"

_"Not yet, the death is recent, and I think the Doctor is going to ensure the body is ready."_

"Do nothing to interfere, we need them busy in order for the plan to run smoothly. I gather they know of the site?"

_"I had the report doctored as you requested, as a result, they're going to investigate the site 'Adellone'. So far they have not been looking as to how the report got signed over in Squall's name, but eventually they'll realize that something's wrong."_

"When I give the order, make that change, for our side. In the meantime, how many have they sent on the investigation?"

_"One rank SeeD, three raw members that have only just cleared developmental and a hazmat team. They couldn't spare any more men."_

The caller grinned broadly. "I'll take care of that loose end personally, they won't find anything to implicate us. Stay dark for now, don't do anything aside from what they expect of you. I'll call again when the plan advances."

As he closed the call and shut down the phone, the man stood up and chuckled. It was all running smoothly, he had chosen his insider well, this wasn't someone they could look to. He had the perfectly disciplinary record and would never turn up on a red flag search. The Garden was going on exactly the right course, soon the plan could come to fruition. Smiling inwardly the figure made for the hatch, and back into the servitude that was expected of him...


	4. Process of Decay

Chapter 4: - Process of decay

The walls reflected nothing back at him a million fold, their gun metal finish dull and lifeless. The figure sat on the stone pallet bunk and looked at the clefts in the walls. Grooves ran the length of the room, from floor to ceiling. Lines of his life that had been etched in the dulled steel world he now called home, a world removed from all outside influence.

"Vae victis, suffering to the conquered..." He chanted soberly to himself, it was ironic now that he was the one suffering. Nothing as pedestrian as physical pain, merely the jab of impotent dreams. The hunger for his freedom. The brooding man didn't care if he was in heaven or hell, all he wanted, was the rule that he once held in his palm.

His blonde hair still had the sharp military presence it always had, disciplined to the core, he had maintained that connection to his former self. Though he no longer sported the long white coat with the red crosses on the sleeves. Instead he wore a grey jumpsuit, the back of which had faded lettering the referred to Deling City.

"I ruled you!" He suddenly cried out, his bare feet smashing into the floor. A discordant ringing shattered the silence, the sonic wave repeatedly thrashing at his eardrums. The figure gritted his teeth, the ivory incisors and fangs rattling with the vibrations of the air, as if he were stood in a large freezer.

Visions of that glorious time came back to him and he shuddered. This entire prison was his to command. Gleefully he had ordered people to be dragged from the cells, beaten, shocked and tortured. It had been a great realisation of the desire to dominate everyone. A feeling he had always possessed, a hunger to command entirely.

Now he was the one dominated, chained to his fate, isolated from the rest of the world. Agitated eyes darted askance, the pupils absorbing the desk in the corner. A dull yellow light was radiated by a tubular lamp, while in the centre of the table, was a pile of cards. It had been the sole skill that had taken him during the time inside this hell.

Triple triad was little more than a fad, far too tedious for anyone of his standing. His great rival was the same, the game was a pointless waste of time. Play some juvenile trading card game or blood your weapon in combat. Joyous flames being expended upon some defenceless shrubbery, before the blade sliced the shrivelled vines into tiny pieces.

That life was not his anymore, the damage far too ranging. For Seifer Almasy this was what he had always feared most. To be locked away, ignored, forgotten. Apparently Squall had ranted about not becoming a memory when rumour of his execution first came to light. Truth to tell, Seifer agreed with him. When people spoke his name they were always nervous and tense, provoked into a response.

_"Thanks to you, I think I can take on anyone, even if they fight dirty and pull cheap tricks like you do."_

_"You'll thank me," he said, sounding confident, "when the time comes."_

The memory had come unto him uninvited, he could almost taste the anger and shock that his Squad had felt at the decision to betray orders. That betrayal had made them great, gave them the chance to succeed where he had failed. Even if their bowels turned to water in the process, that mission made them. Everyone knew it at the time, Seifer and Squad B had been controversial, breaking all the rules of SeeD. Yet, in doing so, they gave the Dollet Dukedom a chance for independence. The fact it was taken had been all the more galling.

No one spoke of that mission now, the name Seifer Almasy meant nothing. When he had controlled the Galbadian Garden, and all the students of it, he had been the man to bow to. Hundreds of battle hardened fighters, all possessing a raw and unchecked edge that the Balamb wannabes could not emulate, each man answered to him.

Despair turned to anger, anger turned to hatred. This was not his calling, it was not his fate! He had been the man all cowered from and followed behind. It was pathetic that he had let himself fall so far, as if he had stepped over the edge and into infinity. The former knight's eyes darkened and focus came back to them. No longer did he cling to former glory, no more did he think of what he was. Seifer, in his mind, was reborn, the fire had returned.

"You can't hold me forever, I will rise..." He snarled.

Suddenly he heard loud talking from the next cell, he must have woken them from their boredom. With nothing more to attune his mind to, Seifer listened vaguely, not savouring all the details. At first he chuckled, like he, they were prattling on about the past. Going on about how great the sorceress age was. He felt it ironic that one of the key figures from the last sorceress war was mere feet from them.

He was about to let the conversation go completely when he overheard them talking of change. Startled that they had a future plan after all, he focused more intently. The Prison not only had the magic barrier active, but also he had long been deposed to the GF that would allow him to enhance the body's abilities. Straining every ounce of concentration to his ears, Seifer focused on what they were saying.

_"... The order will return, it almost happened last time. Had it not been for SeeD, the world would have fallen into line."_ One figure announced.

_"Time was always a risky ploy, but the contingency plan is on course, that's what the last message told me. Guards haven't picked it up, and the Estharians are in the dark over it."_

_"And Garden... Divide and conquer."_

As the pair lapsed into laughter, Seifer smiled. They had a contact outside, something about them was more than a case of petty theft. They were big time, though he did not recognise their voices. Whatever plan they referred to made no sense to him. But one thing shone through all of that talk. The men talked of a way out, somehow they were going to be free of the prison. He had seen enough of the walls, screamed enough times about what he once held in his palm. These men were his ticket free, he would ride it all the way...

* * *

The island had been devoid of life, having successfully navigated between the two mountains, the SeeD unit found themselves at a coastal point. Fortunately, there was a shallow route that the SUV could ford, and they had carefully made their way across to Winter Island. No name summed somewhere more aptly, except for the rumours of islands that are closest to heaven and hell.

The ground was completely coated in a blanket of wind driven snow, there was no grass visible, and besides some spherical forests that defied the order of this world, it was a frozen wasteland. At first sight Irvine had been forced to reconsider his earlier perspective. The fact that a race of people chose to live in such a place defied all sense. The underground settlement did grant them a self-contained utopia, but it was like building a palace in a warzone. They had the luxury, but otherwise lived isolated from everything else.

As his gaze fell upon the settlement, the sharpshooter felt a shiver course down his spine, but ti weasn't induced by the cold of the northern plains. The building was shaped like a colossal dome, though it had a more elliptical shape, rather than a spherical one. Huge red girders cut through the ground and rocks around it, their bent and crooked forms emulating that of the legs found on a spider. A spider city and a virus that was killing their allies. It seemed far too much of a coincidence to him.

"There it is, the Shumi village." He announced to the SeeD's with him. "This is where Zell's squad had their final mission disclosed. If anyone knows anything about it, it'll be the Shumi's."

"It looks nasty, like something's gonna come out and attack at any moment!" One student cut in.

The words brought Irvine on edge. "Good point," he concurred, much to the student's surprise. "If Zell's team were infected around here, then who knows what has happened underground. We go on foot, in hazmat suits just to be safe."

"I thought they were a peaceful people?" The driver said apprehensively, "I think it'd be obvious that we're here to help them rather than hurt them."

"We can't afford to risk infection, if there's no trace of the virus in the air once we're in the village proper, we'll get out of the suits. Until then, treat this like we're in the infirmary. Guards up; let's move out!" Warily they advanced upon the quiet settlement.

As the huge metal shutters rolled back, a horrifying quiet filled the air. Quickly they ignited the halogen lamps that were built into the rubber suits, the bright light scanning all corners like it were a lighthouse. A draw point, which Irvine recalled the Shumi guarding due to the potent magic, bubbled purple coloured magical energy into the otherwise darkened cavern.

But that was all he saw, the entryway was completely empty, the guards that he recalled were nowhere in sight. Irvine raised a balled fist with his left arm and all movement from the backup unit ceased. Carefully he looked down the corridor, watching for any movement that may suggest they had relieved themselves for a brief minute only. After thirty seconds passed, with no sign of sound or movement, he realised something was very wrong. Swiftly he pulled the long silver rifle from the scabbard-esque holster that was slung onto his back.

Behind him he heard the newly promoted SeeD members drawing their own weapons. Turning, Irvine regarded the profile of the first SeeD, Dychestra; a young male teenager who had short black hair, cut close to the scalp. For a SeeD, Dychestra was surprisingly short, the leader guessed he was around five and a half feet tall, at a push. In his palms were a pair of tonfas, each adapted so that a pair of spikes protruded from the front.

Irvine smiled as he looked at the other SeeD, she was older than most of the raw recruits, eighteen years old according to his recollection, and a student who had apparently failed the initial exam in the previous spring. Since then, she proved to be a lethal student; roughly around five feet and nine inches tall, her most striking feature was her skin. Unlike any other student in Garden, Sirena was dark skinned. Irvine had been particularly impressed by her weapon, a spear that was around four feet in length. The main end possessing a wickedly sharp blade, curved in the fashion of a scimitar.

"The guards to the village aren't in place. Something's wrong." Irvine announced to the team.

"Full hazmat protocol?" One of the medical graduates asked swiftly.

Irvine nodded. "Anything could have happened here. Remain behind the SeeD defence at all times." The group nodded. "Sweep position three," instantly the SeeD fanned out. Irvine at the point of a wedge, Dychestra and Sirena forming the wings. "Move out!" Warily the team advanced upon the silent elevator to the settlement below...

* * *

Light filtered through the purple tarpaulin of the tent. Behind his back, Zell could feel the ropes irritating the surface of his wrists. He could not recall how long he had been sleeping, though no dreams came to him. A faint hope had died inside his mind at that point, this was obviously no trick like the dream world with Laguna and the memories of the sorceress war. This surreal landscape, no matter how alien to him, was holistically real.

Taking in deep breaths, Zell focused on the situation at hand. Vascaroon, the charismatic leader had taken the bait about the memory loss. But, in order to make his survival iron clad, the lord mentioned that he was to take in a bout against one of his fighters, the rules for which he would learn later.

Closing his eyes, the warrior began to chant in a broken dialect of Balamb. The words soft and elegant, to any who heard him, it could have sounded like he was chanting in some form of ritual. With the vocal mask in place, he threw all concentration into the depths of his mind, painfully he reached out. He was desperate to feel the familiar warmth of the guardian force, yet the only thing his emotions found, was a vast emptiness. Silently he opened his eyes, his body felt fresh after the mantra, but he was horrified to not feel the presence of all he had learned at Garden. In this land he would not only be an outsider, but he'd have to rely on raw skill.

Clenching his fists, Zell felt the veins bulge and muscles contract. His grandfather hadn't needed the GF to do all his fighting. When Zell mastered the arts he hadn't summoned the power of a guardian to be his guide. The warriors eyes widened and his facial features darkened. Zell was not some student who had his privileges revoked, he was a fighter, a brawler without equal. Everyone else relied on weapons and other advantages, those were the weapons of the enemy. He did not need, he would not use them!

As he felt the strength and courage return a sharp pain flared in his chest that almost brought him to his knees. He resisted the urge to scream, instead he clenched his teeth together. Eyes locked shut, his body shook violently as he felt fire flow through his chest. When he thought it could get no worse, a colossal electric shock coursed through him. Zell was flung forwards, were it not for the ropes tying him down, he'd have been thrown across the pavilion. As he took in sharp, shallow breaths, the tent flap opened.

"This is the one who is to fight?" A random sentry called out.

"Lord Vascaroon demands it, the fighter who will represent his honour has yet to be decided." A second figure replied.

"The prisoner looks to be no challenge, honour shall remain with the clan." Zell remained silent as he felt the ropes being cut, before he was grabbed from behind. "Rise, your presence is required by Lord Vascaroon." Zell gave a silent nod, before standing slowly. Instantly he fell into line as the pair marched him from the tent.

The morning was bright, the sun hung low in the eastern skies, and Zell made a mental note of the conditions. Tradition dictated that a prisoner meet their fate at dawn, there was no reason that his would be decided any differently. The path beneath his feet was made of loose stones and gravel, a neat surface that did not feel uncomfortable. Though the soft leather sandals were the main reason.

Zell kept his silence, despite the men constantly talking of how his people were obviously beastly due to the tattoos and muscular tone of his body. His head was also low set, he avoided eye contact, until Vascaroon spoke about the fight, he was still to be considered an expendable prisoner.

It was the self-imposed servitude that meant he did not see the fighting arena until the last moment. If he had expected a grand amphitheatre where the lord of the realm oversaw all combat,. then he was completely wrong. A small circle shaped area of the land had been marked with a rope, the inside of which had been overlaid with sand. A group of about one hundred men surrounded the primitive arena, while on a low knoll behind it, sat Vascaroon. His venetian mask covered all the features of his face and the long violet robe kissed the ground beneath his throne.

"Bow for Lord Vascaroon!" A call sounded from one of the front line. Instantly all the figures dropped to their knees, Zell was about to follow suit when Vascaroon summoned him forward. His wrists were released by one of the guards and, nervously, he followed the instruction, his footsteps taking him through a parted line of the crowd. As he reached the sands, Vascaroon raised his palm and gestured towards the floor. Zell was rocked by confusion until he felt a hand drag him onto his knees.

"This warrior is a victim of Hyne," the overlord began to the silent morass. "He expresses a desire for revenge; to assist in the war against his tyranny. I have granted him this wish upon one condition; that he defend his honour in the circle of sand!" A rough cheer filled the air. "I name Sudakstra to defend my honour." As the cheer went up again, Zell stood confidently in the centre of the circle.

The man Vascaroon had ordered to defend his honour was olive skinned, and around the same height as Zell - who started to shadowbox in front of him - the chosen fighter also had long scars on his chest. His face was sunken and had piercing blue eyes that seemed to stare straight through Zell. The long back hair of his opponent had been braided from the top of the scalp and it ended around his waistline.

Zell gave a light cough and stretched his hand out, the subsequent ignorance shown by his quarry was expected, and Zell simply shrugged it off. He began to rotate his arms, one cycling forwards while the other rotated backwards, after ten seconds he switched the order, his joints becoming loose and warm. His opponent, meanwhile, had dropped his knees and kissed the sand. Zell resisted the temptation to send a kick into the man's jaw and end the fight before it even began.

"The fight shall be with the staff!" Vascaroon cried out suddenly. Zell ceased his movement and turned to see a pair of warriors walking onto the sand, the arms clutched tight against a pair of quarterstaffs, each at least five feet in length. "I promised you would learn the rules to this fight, well it's simple, whoever stands last, will be the victor." Zell snorted to show his anger, Sudakstra simply smiled. "Bow to my honour!" Both followed the order and Zell noticed the swing of the staff. Carefully he swayed to his left and felt air brush against him, as the wooden staff harmlessly passed him. "Begin!" Vascaroon ordered.

Zell charged forwards instantly, flicking both of his wrists out, he watched the staff circle towards Sudakstra's temple. At the last instant, the figure spun his staff around, deflecting the attack away from him. Zell, off balance, was an easy target for a counter. Sudakstra's weapon aimed for between his legs. Zell smiled and jump upwards, his foot cannoning off the chin of his enemy.

Not giving Sudakstra the chance to recover, Zell rushed in and, reversing the staff, he aimed a thrust at the chest of his opponent. Desperately the man spun away, while holding his own staff one-handed, Sudakstra spun it around like a windmill. Twice Zell felt hammering blows against his right shoulder.

Rolling with the attacks, Zell spun his own staff. Sudakstra ducked one swipe, only to walk straight into Zell's foot. He doubled over as the wind was knocked from him. Only for an upwards strike of the staff to send him cartwheeling through the air and out of the circle. Zell stood and raised his staff over his head, when Vascaroon rose to his feet and gestured for him to stop.

"Sudakstra has not yet failed to stand." He commanded.

"He went from the circle! That's a disqualification!" Zell protested.

Vascaroon smiled and shook his head. "I said last to stand, not last to be in the circle. Sudakstra, rise, my honour is still to be defended."

Zell snorted as the man rose, he had a nasty stream of blood flowing from the jawline, while at least three teeth had been lost in the assault. Sudakstra bore a look of pure hatred and came rushing ruthlessly. Zell prepared himself as the first blow was aimed towards his throat. Carefully he spun his own weapon, the defence of the attack worked, but he cursed as the expected ricochet assault missed his quarry.

The man was fast and aimed a viscous swipe for the back of his legs. As the wood clattered into the back of his shins, Zell flew backwards. Thinking fast he threw his own staff forwards and aligned himself into a backwards somersault. Landing shakily, he watched Sudakstra grin, Zell cursed himself for being an idiot. Patiently, he goaded the man forward, knowing he needed to get the staff back.

The man rushed towards him and aimed an ugly cleave which would have knocked him from his feet. But Zell read the move and performed a baseball slide through the man's legs. Confused, Sudakstra could only look on as Zell slid past his own staff, collected it and rose to his feet behind him.

The pair engaged in a swift clash of the staffs, their weapons blurring as the speed and intensity of their personal war grew further. Shoving the left side of the staff forward and colliding with Sudakstra's weapon, before they switched sides with the same result. The energy caused each of the warriors to grow ever more angry, suddenly Sudakstra roared a war cry, which Zell retorted with a furious kick to the man's groin. As his foe keeled over in agony, Zell surprised them all by hitting Sudakstra in the temple. Sending him crashing to the sand. A sense of exultation filled him and he was about to walk from the fight, when he heard the man twitch.

Frustrated by the enemy's resilience, Zell's fury boiled over. To the shock of all watching he broke his own quarterstaff over his knee. But rather than throw the fight, he held both ends in either hand, like they were clubs. Sudakstra, partially stunned by the wicked blow, saw none of this.

Once the man got to both feet, Zell leapt forwards, feet first. The booted feet forced his assailant to the ground. Zell, overcome with rage began to smash both clubs into the man's head. Three horrid blows smote Sudakstra's skull, before Zell noticed he was not moving. Rising he stood at the centre of the circle. All was silence, he held up the bloodied and broken staff, before tossing it to the sand.

"I'm the last man standing!" He bellowed into the air. The cry was met with silence until a ripple of applause began, all men looked for the origin of the sound and noticed Vascaroon had arose from his throne.

"All hail the warrior!" Vascaroon ordered, an instant euphoria filled the air. "Bring him to my pavilion, his honour has been restored!"

Confused, Zell went with the crowd, as the broken and bloodied fighter he had defeated, lay still in the circle of sand. None attended him or healed his wounds. Just who was this Vascaroon, and why was he so adored?

* * *

Squall sat in the Commander's chair of the conference room. Rinoa, still in her sparkling white dress, sat to his right. While Quistis and Xu both took up position at the ends of the table. The light of pre-dawn filtered through from the front deck. A slight humming sound telling them that Nida had begun to fire up the Centran mechanism of the MD-level. Today they left their comfort zone, voyaging into a silent unknown to await their fate.

He shooks his head to clear the drowsiness from his mind. The situation was not as grave as that, Garden had begun to stabilise, Selphie's festival ploy being a cover that calmed the storm a little. Though he was no fool, it would only take one minor incident and the whole thing could blow up in their faces.

"Main screen!" He called as the machine alerted them to the incoming transmission. At first the glass was filled by a grey image that repeatedly flickered, the fuzzy moton hurting their inattentive gazes.

For another thirty seconds the unbroken static persisted until a strange sound, akin to the tuning of an ancient stereo, excreted from the speakers. With it an image faded into existence. The lush plants and crystal clear waters reminded all four of them, of a gentle lake settlement. None could still quite believe the beauty of a world that was about two hundred feet below ground.

This time was different though, the pathways appeared to be splattered by bloodied remains and none of the solitary tribe could be seen. Squall, feeling his heart skip a beat, scanned the others. He could sense the fear; it was tangible, almost like something had gone vastly wrong. As he stepped into shot, none recognised him at first. The full length biohazard suit blocked out all of the features that would have led to his identification. The only distinctive thing about him, was the voice that radiated from the internal microphone.

"Commander Leonhart, do you copy?" The figure asked.

"We read you, Captain Kinneas. Just in case your monitors aren't picking up the visual feed, you're on with Rinoa, Quistis and Xu. Make your report."

"Yes sir!" He replied with a SeeD salute. "We reached the settlement over an hour ago. The island is completely deserted, not even one of those annoying manta creatures was around!"

"What was the settlement like?" Quistis jumped in, "from my time in the field I know a bad scene and the feed is worrying me."

Irvine nodded. "You're not wrong to think that; we found the place decimated. As far as we can tell, none of the Shumi's survived... whatever it was that killed 'em. Remember that bizarre sculptor, the one buildin' that statue of President Loire? Well his workshop was completely cleared out of its materials, but there was a whole lot of corpses laid out on the floor, they were all stacked on top of each other. Looks like the workshop was ground zero for whatever the incident was, but one of the recent graduates, Dychestra, spotted at least four more corpses in the lake. At least now we know why no one answered when we called; they all bought the farm from the looks of it."

"Have you found the elder?" Rinoa chipped in.

Irvine shook his head. "Since everyone else is dead – including his assistant or whatever he was – we think he mighta bought it too, but we haven't checked out his home just yet. That's next on our agenda."

"I know you're not a doctor Kinneas," their Commander began, "but what do you think happened?"

"Well the bodies are rotten; almost unrecogniseable. I'd guess they all got infected with the same thing Zell's crew were struck down by."

"Good work Kinneas. I want you and your team to go over every square inch of that village; find out anything that could lead us to what happened if you can, but your main objective is to find the site that Zell's team investigated. Report back once you find anything."

"Copy that, over and out." Irvine announced.

"Squall," Xu called out once the transmission had been cut. Squall nodded in response, signalling for her to continue. "If this virus _is_ responsible for the extinction of the Shumi tribe, then the situation is far worse than we feared." She announced.

"We have to keep calm; until we know how the virus was passed on we do not know the threat level." Squall replied.

"It might be airborne," Quistis overlapped. "An entire village being infected is not exactly an easy thing to achieve, especially when they're as self-contained as the Shumi."

Squall sighed as he felt the last of his patience dwindle. "We don't know how this virus got passed on," he said firmly. "So, until we do, we _will not_ start any rumours! There will be no panic at this Garden!"

"They got infected and died faster than Zell's crew..." Rinoa pipped in suddenly. "Isn't that kind of strange?"

"What do you mean?" Xu questioned.

"Well, Zell's team obviously got the information for that specific site from the Shumi right? So the tribe had to be fine when they first met. If they were infected then shouldn't Zell and his team have died before SeeD even found them?"

"Stop," Squall interjected while raising a hand into the air. "The Shumi are completely different to us, both physically and mentally; they live in an artificial world and probably have different immune systems from us. More than likely their bodies aren't as used to forms like virus' because of their seclusion from the rest of the world. That being said, until we know anything for sure, we say absolutely nothing! Do you all understand?"

When all three members of the cabinet nodded their heads, he felt some form of relief. "Good. Then this meeting is adjourned. Continue with the containment plan. I will oversee the launch with Nida and announce our departure once we are ready."

The room emptied swiftly and Squall felt nervous, what if they were right? Could they be on the brink of an epidemic that wipes out entire civilisations? He shuddered at the thought of the corpses in the streets, and forced himself to focus on moving Garden to a secure location.

* * *

The quad echoed the sound of the wind as it brushed through the open air at portside. Leaves and twigs delicately bristling down upon the floor as the coastal breeze headed towards the Garden. Instantly one tech saw the nuisance that this would cause and began ordering a huge curtain to go across the breach and stop the wind flowing in.

With that done he snarled then as he oversaw the other stage techs busily rebuilding the stage. The natural position had been so that it was side on with the opening and facing a large space that went back for around fifty feet. The head of the festival comittee, Selphie Tilmitt, had instantly overruled that.

_"We can't have the stage there; when the sun sets no one will see anything! The performers'll be too dazzled to perform, and anything metal will hit the light and blind the audience! Move it so the stage is facing the entry to the quad!"_

The tech had argued at length; he went on about how the movement was a logistical nightmare and that countless other events had occurred ok in exactly the same spot and how they'd been smash hits. Selphie was quick to point out that the techs had managed to move and build the entire stage in the centre of a town; at least half a mile from Garden when they were beached at Fisherman's Horizon. All argument had ended at that point.

The Overseer was still angry at what he saw though, Selphie and the committee had announced the event over the live PA system and already a queue was forming along the bridge to the quad, despite there being well over six hours before the event got even close to going live. Yet here he was, watching a stage still being built, a backline that was totally untested at the moment and a lighting rig that wasn't in place.

"This is too much effort," he announced while wiping sweat from his brow. Popping the cork to a plastic bottle, the tech drank a deep dram of water. He stood around six feet in height, his auburn hair short and spiked up, while on his body was the typical garden school uniform that no one but SeeDs and instructors could ignore.

"Jenas we have a problem." A tech announced suddenly, he shook his head and replaced the cork in the bottle.

"What is it?" He asked swiftly.

"Due to changing the stage, we don't have any gas line for that area, so we can't utilise any pyrotechnics."

"What!?" Jenas yelled,"what about the smaller ones that require small bottles of gas?"

"We don't have any of those portable canisters, they were used up during the performance in FH."

"Bollocks!" Jenas shouted.

"What's with all the shouting?" The bubbly voice asked suddenly, Jenas grinned, this was his chance to flay her alive. Turning around he took in the sight of the bubbly and overly happy committee chair before him. She had this beaming smile adorning her face, as if she had been hooked up to some nitrous oxide for over an hour. He loved the thought of shattering that happiness with the bad news.

"I'll tell you what's with it," Jenas began harshly, "_your_ decision to mess around with the stage has caused a monumental problem! Firstly we have less than six hours to the show; no backline and no lighting rig means no stage! So my techs are working their butts off now, which means they'll be knackered when we need them most, which will be during the bloody show! And before the actual concert begins,somehow we've got to arrange a soundcheck, no doubt your prima donna artist will want at least an hour and a half singing to her sound engineer! To cap it all off, we don't have any gas input where you want the stage, and since we don't have any portable canisters you can pretty much guess what that means; no bloody pyrotechnics!"

Selphie narrowed her eyes dangerously; this was the closest he'd seen her to being angry in the entire time he'd been forced to work with her. "Where exactly do you think we are? Some legendary racetrack with over 80,000 people attending? What do you think we are doing tonight? Shooting some classic live video that will become iconic for over thirty years?" She stepped up close to Jenas and looked him right in the eyes. "The majority of the audience are just a bunch of students out for a good time, so _smile_ for god's sake!" She announced, forming a beaming smile.

Jenas flushed red. "Smile? How exactly do you expect me to smile when everything is falling apart? Were _you_ smiling when the Galbadians invaded this very Garden during the war over a year ago?" He asked with a twinge of fury.

"The only link between that and now, are the students." She replied calmly. "They are all confused, nervous and frightened. Tonight we are going to put on a great live show and everyone will leave happy, settled and calm. Who cares if we don't have twenty foot high fire columns or airplanes that skim the top of the stage as they fly by? We all want to have fun, and that's exactly what will happen. The crowd'll pour in here when it's dark, listen to some great music and have an all night pah-tay!" She said all this while she danced on the spot, her arms held outwards and mouth in a huge smile. Jenas looked at her and could not help himself, her enthusiasm was just too infectious.

"All right!" He called back to her. "You want the basics that will still rock this whole quad? You got it! When is she checking?" He asked swiftly.

"Whenever you want her. Jjust make her sound like a million gil and everyone will be happy!" As the chair began to dance across the quad to other techs, Jenas wondered to himself how that cowboy managed to cope with someone who was so energetic all the time. Jenas knew that he wouldn't be able to keep up when the lights died that was for sure.

* * *

Her eyes devoured the ripples within the fetid and murky waters, where she could see no reflection within the depths. This was good; there was nothing in that reflection she wanted to see. The woman who's eyes would be staring back, would be accusing, calling out her judgement. She had every right to, that woman had been disgraced the day before. All the work she had put into her career was flushed away in one moment, one careless instant.

Kadowaki remembered the lectures of the fabled mind talent, the ability to rise above all emotion. One of her most regular patients had this ability, a rare talent to forego any sense of caring or emotion; a skill he had the gall to know naturally. Her fist rose from the basin and crashed against the mirrored cabinet. She felt, rather than heard, the glass shatter, the broken images of its agressor refracted a thousand fold in the scattered debris of the scrubbing room.

How she hated his natural ability to do what she could not, how she hated herself for feeling such bitterness. Squall was not the one who gave the order to that doctor, and it had not been the Garden Commander who had directed one man to infect himself. It was her fault; she bore all blame. It had been her actions and those actions alone that held responsibility for it.

"God help me," she cried out to the waters. All her life she had overcome odds to save others, always managed to achieve the impossible. But now, for the first time in that long existence, the doctor was powerless; had she been stronger, she never would have made that mistake. All morning she had averted her gaze from every member of the staff, her mind unable to cope with the shame those looks possessed.

Raising her face from the basin she flicked back her hair and tied it into a knotted bun. With the mirror shattered Kadowaki was spared the blushes of looking at the huge lines of age that had formed on her skin, though she could feel them , pressing down upon her. As she tied the uniform the words of the orderly came back to her.

_"I was only following orders!"_

"You followed them magnificently," she mouthed to the wall, knowing full well that the figure could not hear the words being spoken for his malaise. A sense of anger coursed through her in that moment, a fatal error; probably one that had cost an orderly his very life. Should he die, she would be forever responsible, and she didn't know if she would be able to live with that on her shoulders.

Grabbing onto the towel at the left side of the sink, she gazed at it longingly before scrunching it, as though crushing the depressing thoughts in her mind. Drying all the excess water away, she was filled by a renewed vigour and, as her expression fell into a grim look, she tossed it into the biohazard bags. She could not, would not, give up, not when there was so much at stake.

"I am _not_ throwing it all in." She called to the murky waters as they drained away, almost as though trying to express to them her conviction. "No matter what you say to me. "I _am_ a doctor. In times, I have to make the world sick in order to cure it."

The bitter words echoed off the walls of the room, sounding her resolve and forcing it into her. It drove her forward and she raced from the room, dived into her hazmat suit, before advancing upon the mortuary, where the corpse waited patiently for her...

* * *

The clock on the wall of the country home chimed repeatedly and, cradling her head against her knees, she counted the distant gongs. It was as if the huge cymbal had been hung on a rack before her; such was the noise that bounced off her ear drums, while the cells of her brain vibrated as though caught in a centrifuge. Time... It was a thing she had mastered; an artform that made her unique and alien to every other human being.

She sighed deeply as she drank in the silence that followed the song of the hour. An ancient phrase told of how time would master you, if you did not master it. For the girl who had been the catalyst in the sorceress war, she was not so sure if that were true. Despite the greater good that war had achieved, despite the ghosts of the past it had buried, it seemed as if she was always destined to be alone; to be constantly segregated from those she loved.

Her own uncle had ordered this; she had been a good girl for Uncle Laguna and it was a trait that she would always be proud of. Still, she sighed as she remembered how Squall had taken the story of the past. His big Sis had known for years of his father's identity and yet she had never once confided it to him. After all the months he had spent coming out of his shell and beginning to trust others, she knew that she couldn't let on. At that time she had been an orphan, a young girl traumatised by her kidnapping and Squall believed the yarn, but even now it clawed at her; it raked at her mind from the inside.

With the war at an end, Ellone had felt that everyone's lives could finally return to a semblance of normality. For a short time it had; Laguna had gone back to Winhill and laid flowers at the grave of his wife for the first time since she'd died years ago. The President had erected her plot on the very spot where he had shocked her all those years before in an act of love from the big and gentle heart he had possessed. Ellone had been in bed, at the time, though the story always filled her with joy, whenever she heard of how her 'Uncle Laguna' had pretended to walk away; of how Raine, falling for the tease, had gone after him, only for him to surprise her and slip the simple engagement ring onto her finger. Laguna had always exaggerated about how her face was invisible beneath a waterfall of happy tears, but she'd always loved that part the most; Raine had done a lot for her as a child, and it had filled her with joy to know that that very moment had made her that happy.

Ellone smiled as she recalled the confusion that had rocked her mind when he had first told her. _"People aren't 'spose ta cry when they're happy,"_ she had argued. Both Laguna and Raine had smiled telling her how she would understand eventually. The joy of the memory became eclipsed with sadness just as quickly as Ellone realised why she had always been so full of joy; part of her had wanted for a man to surprise her in the same way, to see past the curse of the time walker and carry her over to happiness. Yet, as she remained in the secret hideaway, she realised she was similar to one of those princesses in the fairytales Raine had read to her when she was younger; specifically the ones who where hidden away behind walls of thorns hundreds of feet high.

"This house is the secret garden, and I am the forbidden fruit,." she sang softly, the tune of her voice echoing the sadness of her heart.

Crying for freedom and to touch the hearts of those she cared for, she decided to once more venture into the world that she controlled. Closing her eyes shut, Ellone focused on the lonely and cold heart of the lion. She felt a warmth form on her neck, a warm gold emblem of a lion's mane forming at the crest of her skin. Ellone gave a sound of harmony as she was carried away from the secret home and to the sanctuary of a time before...

* * *

The doctor strode confidently through the double doors into the mortuary. To an outsider she looked on song, ready for the toughest of challenges. Cid and Squall had both been right to bottle up their feelings; life was about letting people see what you wanted them to. She could see that the red light was on in the theatre; the cameras had been rigged up as she requested.

"Patient 100AX, Lomax." She called lifelessly, "in the following I shall determine the cause of death." Kadowaki began in a booming voice. Despite her bulky frame, she easily walked across the room to the wall of silver drawers.

Gripping the handle of the one marked with Lomax's name, she slowly pulled the tray back. As she did so, she instantly felt her heart skip a beat. A trail of blood and a visuous fluid dripped from the tray as it came towards her. The sheet also looked wrong, when draped over a corpse it usually had an almost symmetrcial nature to it, acting more like a tent than a sheet, and yet this one appeared to have collapsed upon the flesh randomly. The abnormality proved that something was definitely wrong.

Nervously she pulled the tray out fully and made to throw back the sheet. To her amazement it did not move freely, almost as though caught upon something. For a minute she tugged at snagged parts of the sheet before finally resorting to a pair of medical scissors as a way of opening the blanket. As the fissure formed along the centre of the sheet, she waited until it was fully exposed before throwing off the cover. She recoiled at the sight before her.

In her early analysis she'd announced that the symptoms of the victims suggested the virus was mirroring decay, but not in her worst nightmares had she imagined the decay to have been as accelerated as this. The body had literally split in half. The left side of the body was limp and bore many wrinkles, but it was the right side which arrested her gaze. The flesh, blood and fat of the corpse had completely dripped free of the body, leaving the yellowed and infected skeleton visible to the air. She could see all the internal organs, none of which had survived the decay.

"The corpse has decayed beyond analysis..." She announced nervously. "Time of decay... Fourteen hours." As the light extinguished she slammed her fist against the cabinets. In her infirmary children were dying, and the one thing she thought would take them closer, only pulled them further apart. Angrily she picked up a scalpel and threw it at a wall, she watched it embed into the brickwork. yet the blade failed to cut through the depair that infected her once again.


	5. Over the Edge

Chapter 5 - Over the edge

The former headmaster had slept very badly the previous night; all night long he had been dogged by dreams of empires rising and falling; of images of Edea at the helm of Galbadia Garden once again, riding it like a chariot over the free world as she conquered all in her path. Seifer had stood by her side as her knight, the scar glowing with fiery energy as his hunger for domination was radiated from the centre of his brow. In his dream, Cid had seen himself isolated at the bottom of the world from within a crumbling and decaying home that continued to subside closer to the ocean. The vision of himself had willed the waves closer; to wash him away from the world that his SeeD's should have defended.

As he stood on the dais it was the last form of preparation he had needed clouding his vision. It was that very piece of history that had forced the plan into motion; one being overcome with power whom had attempted to launch a coup d'etat against the free world. Cid knew that this was not about paranoia and he had to drum that home to the military figures gathered around him. He could see General Caraway sitting in the front row; by his side the ally and ousted former Master of Galbadia Garden, Martine.

Clearing his throat he spoke into the microphone that sat before him. "Good morning, everyone. I take it that everyone present understands why this meeting was called?" His question was met with a silence so thick that it was almost stifling, and he watched as several members of the cabinet before him nodded their heads in affirmation. "Excellent. In that case, we can proceed straight to the main crux of the issue..."

"The _only_ issue here is the global dominance that the Estharian Alliance has or will have gained." Martine called bitterly. "Regarding this insult that has been disguised as a solution!"

"Martine," Cid started with a heavy sigh. He had anticipated that the former Garden Master would have his own objections. "That is not why this meeting was called..."

"But that is _exactly _why I have come," Martine raged as he interrupted the Headmaster. "It is why we have _all _gathered here! This plot weakens Galbadia's defences in the event of war!"

Cid raised an eyebrow. "Aside from the senior SeeD's who, by right have the choice to join the militia or transfer to another Garden for master classes. All Galbadia Garden students shall simply be recruited into the main forces. As a result, Galbadia's military gains more personnel rather than losing any."

"And that is _of great_ concern to my people." A deep voice boomed from the back of the hall. All eyes turned to regard the man; he wore a long black robe that touched his ankles, while underneath was a lush white uniform. In his left hand was a gilded royal sceptre. "The people of Dollet are nervous about this talk of a stronger military rising within the borders of Galbadia."

Cid swallowed quietly. "If it may please you, Dollet Dukedom, this is about _removing_ a compromised mobile facility from operation. To prevent any threat of the events that began in Galbadia from ever arising again."

"What about _your_ Garden?" Martine chipped in. "It is still mobile."

"Balamb Garden has been named in the International Treaty as one of the mobile enforcement units, in case of any uprising. All countries signed this treaty, Martine." Cid replied with a cold stare. He knew exactly what he had been planning.

"Stand down, Martine." Caraway called. "This plan is essential, and you know it is. We have all discussed, in recent years, how the Garden has become less of a school and too much of a military institution. This union will only make the situation more tenable."

Martine laughed suddenly. "Don't be ridiculous! This plan is much more to do with control and absolutely nothing to do with stopping Galbadia Garden from getting into the position it was during the war. Why, if anything, it is to _remove _a potential threat from the current Sorceress!"

The comment caused a large gasp to form from the gathered figures and soon after silence ruled for a long minute. No one knew what to say; they were all too shocked by the unprovoked comment. Caraway sat stony-faced in the corner and Cid watched him for a moment, searching for any kind of paternal reaction, but found none. He felt that same kind of anger; he understood that Caraway felt some of the same fear as everyone in that room of the power his daughter now wielded, but all the same he could not stand there and allow those thoughts to boil to the surface again.

"This sort of fear and ignorance is what caused the last two Sorceress Wars." The Headmaster's voice boomed over the silent crowd; his gaze having fallen onto Martine. "Both _tolerance_ and _acceptance_ are the building blocks of a peaceful future. We also have preventative measures such as the biometric scanners which, _again_, were discussed at great length in the peace treaty."

Martine snorted suddenly. "Of course! So you make peace possible by strengthening _armies_ and weakening _neutrality_? Wake up!"

And, without another word he stormed from the meeting, Caraway and the other representatives of Galbadia called after him; Martine did not respond. Cid sighed and called an end to the meeting.

Peace? At this rate SeeD would be facing war once again...

* * *

He sat in the pavillion quietly, the figure sat with his knees resting on the ground, while his feet were inverted, the toes gracing the ground and the base of the foot on display. Zell had positioned himself so that his bottom was on the backs of the feet, nestled atop the heels. The position was familiar to him, _suwaru_, the form all warriors sat within while talking to their master. His arms were angled so that the joints were pointing away from his body, while the index finger and thumb rested on the kneecap. In many ways it was statue-esque, the straight and solid back restricting all movement.

"You fought well, warrior of SeeD." Vascaroon began, "honour must be highly valued for you to defend it so vigorously."

Zell nodded. "Live by the code, die for the code." He replied cryptically, Vascaroon silently nodded. "Though your man fought hard for his."

"Sudakstra is a strong warrior, but in life, there is always one stronger. It is a lesson he learned in the circle of sand today."

"Why did you give me such an opponent?" Zell asked suddenly. "I have seen other guards, proper Ochu's, they'd have been much tougher."

Vascaroon smiled. "Intelligent as well as gifted for the fight? I knew that you had promise." He answered swiftly, "you wanted revenge, said that you would serve Hyne's head on a silver platter if I asked. To test you against one of the bigger guards would have been no good. You needed an equal; someone who would really test you. I chose Sudakstra for this reason... He is also a fist fighter."

"What!?" Zell shouted in surprise. "Then why did you have us fight with the staff in the first place?!" As soon as the question was asked a thought hit him. "He is like me, will only fight with his fists. You just wanted to see who could adapt?"

Vascaroon nodded. "That is exactly the reason." He poured a strange brew from a porcelain flask into a well fashioned cup. "Hyne is a deadly foe; he is not one for honouring the way someone fights. I want a guard by my side who can adapt to anything, and you showed that with your deadly assault on Sudakstra."

"G... Guard!" Zell retorted; Vasaroon nodded. "As in... Your second man?"

"I need someone who can stand with me in any battle. When I first questioned you, I heard stories of how well you fought, though outnumbered, and it was only when Hyne's name was mentioned that you stopped. We share the same goal; stopping that monster is the only way that this land will know freedom. He has great power; a power to fear and respect, but it is one that is corrupting the people and will lead to war."

"Lead? I thought it had already begun?" Zell countered.

"For the tribes beyond the mountains it has," He announced while rising to his feet; Zell mirrored the action respectfully and they stood on the high ridge that overlooked the great lake that Zell had come to when he'd first regained consciousness.

There was still something about it that seemed familiar to him; the deep waters he could not remember, yet the salty air and high peaks stabbed at his mind like a skewer. On the horizon he thought he saw gigantic plants, their green tentacles instantly clawed at his mind. The maniacal grin that its mouth formed was like an evil fissure opening within its maw.

Realisation came instantly; the creature was a Malboro - a plant with deadly poisonous characteristics. One bite from one almost always proved fatal. Malboro's only stalked one place that Zell knew of; the plains of Esthar, and it was then that the salt air surrounding both him and Vascaroon became clear to him; this was the Great Salt Lake, but before the scientists of Esthar screwed it up with their experimentations. It hadn't been seen in its natural state – an actual lake filled with salt water and thriving with life – since long before Laguna Loire had explored it.

Keeping quiet about his inner musings though, he turned to Vascaroon. "To the north? Do you mean beyond the mountains?"

The royal figure nodded. "That is exactly right; beyond those mountains is a raw land that is filled by freezing winds and blanketed with burning snow. If a man is not properly prepared, the shrill air of those lands will literally eat him alive; skin turning blue as he is frozen to death, even if he feels that the climate is warmer there than the southern lands."

"Who can live in such a place?" Zell asked, despite already knowing the answer. Somehow this whole thing was beginning to make some form of sense to him.

"A people known only as the fabled ones. None of my people have ever seen the likes of them It is told that, though they are not meant to be human, their bodies are different; built for the hostile lands. Hyne, like them, is not human, though he may look it. There is a strange power that courses throughout his body, which allows him to survive deadly worlds, such as the lands of the north. Those very powers also grant him the power to corrupt any living thing, to twist the minds of any living breathing soul into becoming a servant of his will. He can even force the memories of people from their minds, never again to remember themselves... As you no doubt understand."

Zell feigned an inner fury; if he was going to keep up this rouse, it would have to be convincing. "He wants these lands? He'll have to get through _us_ to take them!" He shouted, a false passion and loyalty. Truth be told, he had no idea who these people were and why they were talking about Hyne like this. But whatever he needed to do to keep them on the same side, he would gladly perform.

"That," Vascaroon said as he laid a hand upon Zell's shoulder, "is the spirit those in my army are _born_ to have. You know how most leaders hide behind their armies and let the soldiers do all the fighting? I am different; the men need a strong leader, one who will live and die for the same cause; to live _and_ to die in the same way. There will not be a day that I fall off my horse or have a weak heart, I shall die with a mound of my dead enemies surrounding me. Will you stand with me?"

Zell dropped to one knee. "I will stand by you, to the end." He announced, the line coming to him from the play that the Garden festival had put on one year earlier. He had to thank Selphie for her love of this kind of thing.

"Then rise," Vascaroon commanded. "It is time we discuss our plan of action."

Zell watched as the figure pulled an ivory horn from his waist and blew loud notes into the air. Below, the SeeD watched five figures leave the mass and head to the pavillion. "My generals; let us go." He called, and Zell followed...

* * *

The quad had changed with the fall of night, despite the constant calls from the Garden announcing system, a long snaking line of people went from the edge of the quad and followed the main concourse, back through the front turnstiles and into the open area at the front of the Garden. Selphie had giggled madly when she saw the turn out, none of the events the Garden Festival had put on in the past had been even remotely as well attended. (The night in Fisherman's Horizon was hardly the Garden Festival's handiwork, it had taken some major arm twisting from Cid to pull if off)

She had cheered the crew on, even the grumpy engineer Jenas was all smiles as he realised how much of a success the whole event was. With the renewed vigour coursing through him, the head tech had managed to pull off some minor miracles with the stage. The structure was curved, like a huge dome only with half of it pulled away. It looked in a way like when someone sliced a lemon in half. Large black pieces of canvas covered the back of the stage. In a way like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, the patchwork design prevented any wind or rain from ruining the sound or the equipment.

At the back of the huge stage, the crew had erected a colossal wall from amplifiers and cabs. A guitar tech for the festival's act made the entire floor shake as he plucked repeatedly at the thick strings of a bass guitar. Jenas was impressed, the sound levels were good and with the constant chanting from the line behind the false doors. A monumental atmosphere descended upon the Quad.

"I told you it'd work out." Selphie announced with a sudden wink.

Jenas nodded. "You got that right, I just hope my plan for the smoke works."

Selphie raised an eyebrow. "What smoke? That sounds dangerous."

Jenas laughed. "Not really, it is basically some powder that is going to be shot up into the air from a wide cannon. The wind should fan it out into a smoke."

He pointed at the semi-circular metal frame that formed the main back of the stage. "If you look carefully, we have them positoned so that they'll spray high and then the smoke will descend on the crowd. Just picture it, your artist belts out one of her big songs and then boom!" He announced throwing his hands at her. "A ton of smoke is expulged from the stage!"

She held her hands and giggled. "That'll be sooo funny, all these students covered in powder, are we ready to go?"

Jenas nodded. "The backline is fully tested, sound rigged up, lights in play... Diva has had her special lunch, say the word and the flood gates open."

"Awesome! Get your crew ready, our gates will open within the hour."

"Two hour set right?" Jenas asked, "we'll need at least twenty minutes for all the crowd to get in once the doors are open, the DJ will pump them up before hand."

"Great!" She pulled a radio from her side, "this is the festival, ready the cameras, we start in one hour!" She yelled, before cutting the static and heading to the safety of the soundboard control box. Giggling as she prepared for an awesome night of festival madness.

* * *

The light of pre-dawn filtered through the grey clouds that had formed above the metropolis. Below him, the figure watched as the ants began to crawl from their hole and into the bustle once more. It always baffled him how the humans were so similar to the insects that they claimed to be far superior than. Every morning as the sun came over the horizon, they would all crawl out in a morass, spend the day crowding around the anthill, and then as the sun set... They'd all creep back into their holes.

It made him chuckle, each and every day they'd all go at it, millions of people just living out their lives. Oblivious, unable to think that somewhere a major change was looming. He had heard the reports from the penetentiary in Galbadia. The key man was safe and guarded well, a prisoner loyal to the sorceress ideal had also identified himself. The figure burned for revenge, to be free of the sentence that the coalition had forced on him. It was a perfect allegiance. For their new acquisition had vital insight into the machinations of Garden.

"Heaven's open." He called into the satellite phone.

_"Angels fly."_ Came the response.

"What's the situation?" He asked cuttingly, obvious that his man was able to talk.

_"Garden is on the move, and the advance unit have been dispatched. Our radar has them nearing the island."_

"The plan for that pointless investigation is already in play, by the end of the next few hours they'll be destroyed. What other news within the Garden?"

_"The commander is taking a punt, he's organised some form of concert, in an effort to use the bio-metric scanners as a way of detecting the virus in the populace. He's gonna be disappointed when he realises it is not airborne yet."_

"That's good news, I want them kept back, how about the autopsy? Did they find anything?"

_"Not a dime, the accelerated decay has worked wonders, Kadowaki reported to the command that she had found nothing from the skeleton. They are out of ideas and soon will be out of patients."_

"Do nothing to compromise the plan, keep your position in check. You are good at being unnoticed, I want it that way until I need you. For now, keep up the mask."

_"You do the same, no one will question you, after all, you're close to the most important man in the world, you always were." _The traitor announced before cutting off the call.

His inner man might have been impertinent, but the words were true. So far all the pieces were fitting together, soon the drive would be theirs, and the end game could begin. He wondered what the most important man in the world would do when he found himself choking and dying. The thought gave him grim satisfaction as he stalked back into the halls of the main palace...

* * *

His wrists felt hot, the stinging sensation of salty sweat saturating the long sleeves of the scrubs he had been clothed in. The wrists were nothing in comparison to the horrid itching that filled his back. The chafes in his skin from the brushes repeatedly clawed at his mind, the blood and sweat burning like some poison beneath the skin.

Above him, the pattern of the ceiling spun repeatedly, time blurring into non-existence with every passing heartbeat. He had no idea how long he had been here, but he could feel the chilling touch getting closer to him. In the corner of his eyes, the figure would stand there and then be gone moments later. The long black cloak covered his every feature; it was as if a shadow had been wrapped up and brought into the realm of physical existence.

The figure mocked him; it laughed and pointed, the bony finger accusing him as it was levelled his way, using a voice that was unmistakable, the chilling sound that rebounded through the barren void of his dwindling sanity. This is not what he had signed up for; he hadn't graduated from the school of science to start chasing ghosts in his head.

Rolling to one side the patient drew his right palm up in front of his line of sight. The limb shook violently; it was out of control. _He_ was out of control. He could feel his eyeballs rolling in his mind, could feel the plague coursing through his veins like quicksilver.

"I am damned..." He began, "one of them... One of you... One of those... One..." The mumbling continued for a long minute, his words unfocused and nonsensical. "It is coming... For me... Take me... Other side... Away..."

He rolled repeatedly from side to side, curled into a tight ball, wishing to become the foetus stuck in the comfort of the womb; to be free of this pain, free of the madness, free of everything. There was no freedom here, not in this world, despite what the Commander believed. Everyone here was condemned; they might as well have all been armed and told to kill each other one by one. That is what happened when SeeD returned from that wilderness.

The vileness that they carried back was unfounded; no case had ever been recorded in Balamb, certainly not within Garden, nothing of such a substance. Yet now it had control; now it had him, and, despite all efforts and protocols set in place, it would eventually have them all.

"I am next..." The fear he felt was thick and tangible; he couldn't stomach it and was forced to vomit, the discharged fluid yellowed and solid, as though he had choked up his own liver. "I will fade... Decay... Rot... Over time... Agonising..."

A sudden anger forced him to his feet. It was like watching someone snap as their emotions turned tail from utter apathy and resignation, to fury and determination, all rationality was blown away. Desperately he ripped the tubes from his arms, roared like an animal in an attempt to drown out the buzzing of the machines. He heard the pistons of the door releasing. Furiously, he ripped one tube from the floor and tore free the long needle.

Taking the sharp point he pressed it against his wrist. It slid effortlessly beneath the skin, a blast of pain raking at his mind, and he screamed. It was long, desperate sounding; one akin to a tortured banshee.

"The virus won't take me!" He paused as he made to drag the needle up along his arm, "This is _my_ life; my work!"

He swayed on the spot, crashing into cabinets and sending containers flying around the theatre. "I will end it! The virus dies with me!"

_"You will do no such thing! Stand down!"_ He heard the order, but did not see the figure who commanded it. _"Drop the needle and get back in your bed!"_

The former doctor looked at his aggressor; the long hazmat suit prevented him from seeing the man's features, but clenched in his hands was a small pistol-like weapon, the end covered by a white sheet of plastic. There was no barrel that he could see.

"This is my life! Leave me be!" The patient screamed back.

_"Get back in your bed!"_

The patient laughed maniacally, and began to stagger forwards, his hands outstretched like some form of zombie. The cloaked SeeD graduate gasped and took a step back. The patient came closer, his fury and madness carrying him further. From within the hazmat suit, the SeeD ordered the man to stop before he resigned himself to stopping the figure himself. The SeeD pressed down the trigger to his weapon and watched as the plastic end was discarded and two prongs let fly on a pair of cables.

The attack hit home, plunging into the hostile's chest; the SeeD held the trigger down and watched as the man shook violently before he fell to the ground unconscious. He breathed deeply many times before ceasing the current, the patient did not move.

_"He's down. Get a team in here, Stat."_ The SeeD called before walking clear of the room. Deep down, he didn't know whether or not he'd have felt the need to take his own life if he had been in the patient's shoes...

* * *

In the centre of the village, Irvine and his crew had found the remains of the Shumi Elder. He knew that quite a few people would be shocked by the news, but the Shumi tribe was officially extinct; all that remained were fetid corpses that had become stagnant and unrecognisable. In the files they had discovered scattered about the strange central hut, the Squad Leader had found the holy grail; a map that featured a tiny peninsula marked with the letters 'AE' and the SeeD symbol.

At first, Irvine hadn't know what to expect; Zell's team, like his, had arrived in a vehicle that was not designed for sailing and, as the marked spot was in the middle of the ocean, he was baffled how they were going to reach their destination. Fortunately, Dychestra read the markings at the bottom of their map, which indicated some co-ordinates and what appeared to be times of the day. With four hours before the marked schedule, the crew had cruised through the mountains that lay at the top of Winter Island and waited.

What they had not expected to witness was the ocean parting suddenly; the tides at the top of the world drifted towards the north and as such submerged land could suddenly rise to the surface. Irvine had been astonished to witness a solid stone road drift into view, the perpendicular pathway, unblemished by bends or folds, took the group away from the more secure land they had waited on. In the drivers seat Sirena cruised along the makeshift highway towards the island on the horizon.

Once off the land proper, the group carefully negotiated the rough land, the hard suspension of their SUV managing the bumps easily. Had it not been for the grim discovery within the village, Irvine could almost believe that the SeeD's and he were on vacation. He pictured riding through the canyon with the top down, Sefie leant back on the seat with her summer blouse open, a bottle bourbon sat ready on the dash...

The vision was shattered as a scientist began to prattle on about the climate, he groaned despairingly while hoping to recapture the image. But it had gone south, resting his hat over his eyes, the sharpshooter tried to catch some sleep. The rocky path and noisy SUV made that an impossible feat, so he sat up and began cleaning out the barrel of is long rifle.

Behind the wheel, the dark skinned SeeD, Sirena, continue the journey North. She had surprised him when she leapt into the driver's seat, but he had to admit, she sure knew what she was doing. The SeeD wasn't quite as controlled as Sefie was while piloting that red dragon, but the SUV rolled elegantly along, even if sharp rocks did fling the group from the floor every now and then.

As the vehicle rode along through the valley a sudden sound kissed the air. It was akin to the sound of a firework as it first flew from the ground towards the sky. Sirena swung the wheel and the SUV swerved towards a wall, before turning to see what it was. To their left the valley spewed rocks and dust as the explosive clashed with it.

"Something's on our tail!" Dychestra shouted as he glued his eyes to the radar on the main screen. "A sort of aircraft."

"Get us out of here!" Irvine shouted. Sirena responded by slamming the car into gear and heading for the edge of the canyon.

Behind them, the machine rose above the mountainside; its sudden emergence as if it had stepped from some kind of portal from another world into their own. It was as black as night, the long body angular and ridged. It was as if the body was designed to cut through the air, rather than encourage the air to flow over it. A huge cockpit was situated at the front of the aircraft, beneath which was a colossal cannon, its barrel pointed wherever the eyes of the pilot peered.

A pair of wings swept from the stomach of the machine; unusual given the type of aircraft. Each was about sixteen feet long, the edges pointed towards the east and west. Hanging from the underbelly of these wings were a cluster of colossal rockets. While each wing also had a form of weapon that resembled a wasps nest, countless pockets punctured through the front of it. Venomously, it began its pursuit; the ugly machine surprised them further as it made up the ground in seconds.

Sirena desperately began to weave behind whatever cover came their way. As they swung past a tree, some twenty feet wide, they heard the horrible sound of the cannon chopping it in half. A trail of fire burned the remnants as the high explosive rounds took hold. Irvine ran to the back of the SUV; an aircraft of that size could easily evade regular cannon fire, so he opted for the fire ammunition. Kicking open the rear door he wrapped a rope around his waist, anchoring himself to the weaving SUV.

Secure, the cowboy opened fire; the flaming rounds circled into the sky rapidly. Yet the aircraft easily swung away, the shell falling harmlessly to the ground. This seemed to do nothing but anger the pilot; the wasps nest suddenly sprang into life. A huge cluster of micro rockets flew from inside their chambers. In front of her, Sirena saw the explosives repeatedly smash the ground into shards . Clenching her teeth, she steered the vehicle through the melee; twice the aftershock nearly flipped the vehicle, but the green SeeD showed astonishing control of the machine in her hands.

"That's not something you see every day," she began as her eyes flicked to the wing mirrors of the SUV. "A gunship in your rear view mirror."

Slamming the vehicle into fifth gear, she felt the tyres fling more dust into the air. Suddenly she stamped hard on the brakes, flicking the wheel to her left in an attempt to swerve. The startled pilot registered the movement too late; beneath him the SUV slipped in behind another range. Instead of copying the movement, the enemy climbed a few metres so that the cannon cleared the mountainside, before rotating on the spot to face them.

Beneath him, Sirena grinned and spun the car again, driving directly underneath the aircraft and out into the open. Above, the gunship completed a full cycle and began to chase them down.

"Garden, come in!" Irvine called into his earpiece as he fired three more shots into the air, this time they arced directly above the vehicle. His attempt at dropping the shells onto the craft failed as it once again weaved past the falling missiles and replied with another volley from its main cannon.

"Garden do you copy!?" Irvine shouted as another swerve from Sirena flung him against the bodywork.

_"We copy, report Captain Kinneas." _He sighed in relief for a brief moment when he heard Squall's voice through the radio.

"We've been ambushed!" Irvine shouted as another volley left his silver rifle. "Some ugly looking aircraft appeared outta nowhere and shelled us!"

"We've been tailed for three miles already!" Dychestra shrieked. "This is _not _what I signed up for!"

_"We've got you on radar. How close are you to the site?"_

"Not a chance! We have open ground all the way, this thing will blow us to kingdom come!"

_"Then break away!"_ Quistis's voice was loud and clear over the sound of gunfire and the SUV's engine.

Irvine fell silent in confusion. "Commander? Is old Trepe right?" A long second passed before the transmission excreted into his earpiece.

_"Captain Kinneas, this is a full scale abort; repeat, abort mission!" _

"Copy that; we'll follow article 44, out!" He resumed his position before cursing. "These things are worse than useless! Can't hit the sonovabitch!"

Dychestra scanned the interior before his eyes dilated. "Try this Captain!" He called while tossing another gun towards Irvine, who caught it expertly. The weapon was similar to the gun he used now, only the barrel was wider, and the space for ammo only had one chamber.

"What in hell is this?" He called while cocking the weapon.

Dychestra slid a box across the floor. "Judging by these beauties, it looks like some form of grenade launcher." Dychestra announced with a huge grin.

Irvine laughed cockily. "Now that's more like it! Back in the saddle!"

Swiftly, he slid back into the open, aimed the weapon carefully and fired. The propulsion of the launcher was much faster and more controlled; Irvine watched as his first shell slammed into the undercarriage of the aircraft before it shook in response to the attack. Though he saw no major damage, he forced himself to calm down; at least he'd hit the thing. He fired off another round, knowing that such a craft had to have been well armoured to take a hit like that without dropping.

Dychestra did all he could to support, chanting routes and pathways at Sirena. His earlier fear had died down somewhat, but he still looked a little green. Irvine couldn't blame him; not since Squall, Zell and Sefie had been attacked by that huge tank back when _they_ were still green, had anyone faced such a threat this early on in their career.

The chase continued for the next agonizingly long fifteen minutes; during the course of which they had almost been finished off by the chopper three times. First, Sirena had nearly been caught by surprise and only a careful application of the handbrake had saved them from careening over the edge and into a ravine, while the other two times they'd been bombarded by shells. The huge boulders,and trees that surrounded them on all sides had taken the worst of the onslaught and, as such, they had barely managed to come away with little more than a few dents and scratches in the paintwork.

_Finally_ Irvine saw that the chopper was beginning to buckle; it did not move nearly as freely as it had been and one of the weapons had been jammed. He slipped back to the other SeeDs and directed traffic. "I reckon just _two_ – maybe three – clean hits and this could be all over! The casing around the pilot is looking fragile; I take him down and the craft goes with it."

"How close you need to be?" Sirena asked swiftly.

"_Very _close; I need that guy to have no reaction time for this to work."

She smiled. "Hang on!"

Swiftly she directed the car into a large drift and the others looked on as they came to a stop directly underneath the gunship. As she had predicted, the pilot did not know what to do. If the aircraft flew forwards or backwards, it gave them an opportunity of escape to exploit. Yet, by being directly underneath the machine, it also had no line of fire.

The stalemate lasted for about three minutes; that was when the pilot slowly climbed out and then forced a reverse thrust. The car began to slide and move; the down draft of the helicopter blowing them towards the edge and out into the open. Sirena desperately countered the thrust with constant drive; the tyres were throwing smoke into the air with the amount of torque being directed into the ground.

"I can't hold it; it will blow us clear!" She yelled.

"Is there _any_ way you can spin it around so I have a clear shot?" Irvine called from the back.

She gulped suddenly. "There's one chance, and he _won't _see it coming. Get ready and make sure you're secure!"

Sirena slammed the car into reverse and the down draft gave them a push start. As the SUV gained speed, she slammed the wheel hard to her right and pulled on the handbrake. The tyres locked and the vehicle spun swiftly, halfway through the motion she cranked the gears into drive and they sped clear of the down draft.

Irvine did not waste his moment; quickly he fired one grenade and reloaded, repeating the action twice. The stunned pilot desperately tried to gain the advantage, but the first two shells ripped away the outer casing of the cockpit. As he thrust his hand onto the ejector cord, the other shells swarmed upon the cockpit and the explosion ripped through the craft.

The SeeD's watched the carnage as they sped back towards the ocean; the craft, minus its pilot, spiralled uncontrollably and cleared one mountain before a wall of fire rose from behind it and a deafening explosion crashed upon the silence. Their eardrums were assaulted by the pitch and volume and nobody spoke until they felt the sound levels come back to normal.

"Aren't we going to check the wreckage?" One of the scientists escorting them called.

Irvine shook his head. "Article 44 is our order; someone knew we were coming. That means we are compromised. As Balamb is the only active Garden, we have no choice but to avoid direct contact to them. Sirena, you know which article I'm talkin' about?"

She nodded hesitantly. "Go dark... Somewhere that you can hide safely?"

"Good, that's right on the money darlin'. We get back to the boat and then head west; we'll land in Dollet and either go dark there, or move further in land. Let's go!" Sirena responded to the order and they quickly sped to the south again...


	6. Fallout from the war

Chapter 6: - Fallout from the war

The President rushed in from his morning shower, his long black hair dripping like he was a dog that had just emerged from the rain. Flustered, he pulled the hair back into a loose ponytail and rung it out like a rag. A wave of water fell to the floor of the Presidential suite and Kiros rolled his eyes; the base of his robes had just become soaked.

"Thanks Laguna, just what I need before this meeting."

Laguna grinned. "It woke you up at least. How long have we had them on hold?" Ward held up five fingers. "Not too bad, especially since I was washing off. What is it they want?"

"Wouldn't say that; all that the Commander said was that this message was for the President." Kiros replied swiftly.

"It doesn't sound good; Squall never acts brashly without a reason." He jumped into the leather seat and swung to face the screen. "Time to see what this is about. Main screen, respond!" He commanded.

The image faded in slowly; if the President had expected some respect, then he got a nasty shock. Squall sat straight in the middle of the screen, his eyes locked in a fearsome stare. At his right hand side, the usually jovial sorceress sat with a sunken look. Laguna gulped and felt the blood in his leg begin to lock solid; Squall had never once looked at him this way before.

"Commander..." He began uncertainly, remembering how the former SeeD had demanded formal titles in their previous meeting. "What can we do for you?"

"You can give me a straight answer," Squall replied coldly; the tone was enough to freeze fire. "Mr President, the peninsula above Winter Island. What does your government know about it?"

Laguna gasped in shock. "I don't know what you mean... Which pen... Penin..." He faltered.

"The island where I sent my SeeD unit!" Squall barked furiously. "What do you know of _that_ island?"

"Commander, forgive my interruption." Kiros interjected, "but our..."

"When I wish to hear your opinion, I'll ask for it!" Squall bit back.

Laguna's eyes narrowed, anger replacing the shock. "Now that was uncalled for! Kiros is my respected ally; a man who has been by my side for over twenty years! If he wants to say something then I damn well give him permission to say it."

"You haven't answered my question, _sir,_" Squall suddenly rebutted, his voice stone cold, as if he had never been fazed by the whole instance. "What does your government know about that island?"

Laguna sighed; they weren't getting anywhere. Something must've happened to piss off the Commander this much and sitting there arguing about formalities wasn't going to tell him what it was. "We've been researching that area for the last two days. But we haven't found anything on that site," Laguna added quickly when he noted that Squall's frown had deepened. "Well, what else do you want me to say?"

"Then you can answer this; _why _was there a huge aircraft dispatched to that island with the aim of destroying the search team I sent?!"

Laguna's jaw dropped. "What?"

Squall nodded. "That's right; an aircraft not unlike the ones in service within the borders of Esthar ambushed SeeD members; specifically personnel from _my_ Garden. They barely escaped with their lives. Don't bother asking where they are now; I ordered them to go dark deliberately. You won't find them." He announced with an edge.

Laguna held up his hands. "Squall, listen to me... I didn't know anything about any of this; I didn't sanction an attack, honest! This is the first I've heard about it."

Squall's eyes narrowed; he didn't look convinced. "Then you had better get to work on launching another investigation. For starters, you can find out _exactly_ where that aircraft came from and _why_ it attacked my men."

The young Commander surprised them all by walking up close to the screen. "And know this; if Garden finds any intelligence that suggests your government is responsible, we will _not_ hesitate to retaliate."

"Squall! The treaty is vital; we wouldn't do anything to put that at risk, you know that! What kind of moron do you think I am?"

"You don't want to hear my answer to that question." He responded before cutting off the transmission.

Laguna began to shake violently. His right leg was frozen, unable to move from the muscle cramp that had taken hold and, as a result, he slouched into the chair. Cold sweat formed on his brow; his eyes had been so cold, and the image would forever be etched into his memory. Deep down Laguna knew that Squall had meant every word; if he didn't want this escalating into a war, he had better find out what happened. Who had attacked SeeD and why had they left Esthar with the blame?

"Get me... something..." He muttered, "something hard... I need something to calm me down..."

Ward nodded and silently rushed to a nearby anteroom, returning with a beautiful crystal decanter that was half full of a brown fluid. As the silent figure made to pour some out into a goblet, Laguna shocked him by grabbing the entire decanter and taking three huge swallows from the lid. A colossal burp followed as some of the whisky flowed over his chin and Ward snatched back the decanter. Laguna stood and shook warily. The muscle in his leg had relaxed a little, but now he simply felt delicate, the liquor making him go lightheaded.

"Get me the military general..." He began slowly; he couldn't afford to botch up this order, "I want footage of everything that took off."

Kiros nodded and then lay him back in his seat. Ward nodded and began to watch the President, while Kiros dashed off to perform his duties.

--

The image of the main boulevard of Galbadia came back to the Headmaster as he strode through the sand before the prison. It was hard to believe that a country which had such a lush three mile route, lined with vegetation and ancient sandstone buildings, was also home to such an inhospitable wilderness.

For as far as he could see, the sand had drowned the earth. A harsh wind flicked fine dust into the air and he desperately clung tightly to the dust mask that disguised his ageing figures. Vinzer Deling had been a genius when he designed the prison, in such a hot and exhausting climate; almost no one attempted to escape while cavalry also found it extremely difficult to overcome the terrain to assist those on their lists.

Only once had the prison been breached; one that felt ironic as he walked towards the guard tower at the front of the secure facility. During the last Sorceress War, Garden Commander Leonhart and three fellow SeeD members had been held captive there, no doubt pending execution. In a daring and bold move, they'd managed to battle free of the cells and up to the top level of the prison, driving the huge facility into the sands miles below.

Cid had always been in awe of the design and still could not figure out how the Centran constructors had made it possible. Deling had insisted that the prison be in the sky, but not have any form of active airspace. He wanted it so the prisoners were completely cut off and that no stolen aircraft could be mistaken for a prison sky shuttle.

As his eyes feasted on the three gigantic limbs that stretched from the floor up to the facility, Cid could at least understand the mechanism of how it worked. The three pillars were all styled in exactly the same way as a drill, the simple idea being that to get new prisoners, the drills brought the facility lower to the floor, then once unloaded, it reverted back to the original structure.

Squall had reported to Cid that there had been around thirteen levels to the prison, not including the control room and the bridge that led to the exit, so there was obviously more to it. The only thing that made any sense to the former Headmaster was that each floor was somehow positioned in a prong of the drill. Either way, the design had rendered it near flawless and only once violated. Ever since the war, SeeD and Esthar had tightened the facility up further, so that any attempt at escape was impossible; nothing would get out of there unless granted release papers.

This certainty of imprisonment brought a twinge of sadness to his mind, the man he came to see did not deserve this, it had been easy to become misguided during such difficult moments. Yet, despite all pleas from Garden which suggested the defendant had been under some form of exterior control. Reports from the school that documented previous disciplinary issues secured his fate.

"I don't know why you still bother with him sir." One guard announced as the bumpy ride to the top of the prison began. "Everyone else has given up on him, and deservedly so, you should have seen him parading round here during the war."

"The inmate is one of many I saw raised from a parentless childhood and face great pressures, not all can do so without cracking."

"Pah!" The guard snorted, "there's no excuse for it, and he doesn't deserve your pity."

Cid's eyes narrowed. "The children are the light of our world, and I am a teacher. Everyone deserves a chance to make amends; I aim to help him make his."

"Well if you want to waste your time I ain't gonna stop you." He announced, Cid stood as the ride continued on in silence.

For another thirty minutes the ride continued, Cid wondered just what level they had him imprisoned upon, but either way, the journey felt arduous. When all of a sudden, the movement stopped. Cid sucked in air as he felt pain blast in his chest. For another minute he struggled until the guards began to move.

They led him into a square room with white walls, surrounding them on all sides were glass window panes. Cid knew that they could be seen through them, though Cid and his prisoner would be unable to see back. He had long become used to being the centre of attention so it did not bother him. What did bother him was the sight of the man he had come to see. His face was dirty and a huge collar had been placed on his throat.

"How are you Seifer?" He asked to the prisoner calmly.

"Exactly what I look like; I'm like shit." The arrogant prisoner retorted.

Cid nodded. "I know how you feel, tell me, did you like the book?"

Seifer nodded. "I especially liked how that general deceived the other; great mind."

Cid smiled. "Knowing your enemy is a key to winning the battle. What rules shall we use today?"

"Timber's; they remind me of the good times." Seifer replied.

"Excellent, open and same it is. Now let me see..." The ageing figure began to ruffle through his cards for the ones he wanted.

"How are the others?" Seifer cut back, five cards already organised into a fan shape.

"I am glad you asked, your closest allies are both doing remarkably. First Raijin, he has moved from Balamb to Fisherman's Horizon. The big guy got himself an apprenticeship with a fisherman and docker." Seifer laughed at this and Cid smiled; he knew how superior a fisher the prisoner was. "As for Fujin, she has signed up for a field exam with the White SeeD's; if she passes, she joins the crew."

Seifer's face went white with shock. "A... SeeD? Fujin? Surely she can't!" He announced with some surprise while laying the card of a Tonberry king down in top left corner of the grid. "She can barely speak for one."

"Makes her a good cadet." Cid countered as he slipped the Chimera card down into the bottom left square of the grid. "Everyone who's in charge loves a quick and enthusiastic answer, you have to give Fujin credit for that Seifer, you of all people."

"It doesn't really matter; these aren't the days of the committee anymore." Seifer rebutted, cooly placing a Death Claw card down to the right of his Tonberry King. "After all, who'd accept my word on disciplinary."

Cid sighed as he pulled clear his next choice. "You suffered a hardship, everyone knows it." Quickly he slid the Elnoyle card into the top right of the triad board, flipping over the captured Death Claw as he made to withdraw. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

"Tell that to my beloved Commander!" Seifer snorted as he placed the Bomb picture underneath the Elnoyle, blocking an obvious take. "It was the treaty that condemned me to this!"

Cid breathed deeply before playing a defensive move. "The world was baying for blood, it wasn't an easy decision. No one liked making a scapegoat." He placated while placing the Blitz card into the bottom right corner, shielded from an easy steal.

"He chose you well Cid, you really do talk with honey dripping out your mouth!" Seifer spat while cooly slotting the Forbidden picture in between the Chimera and Blitz.

"Good move." Cid announced as he played his final move, the game was his, one simple defence and it would be a 6 - 4 victory. "But you're out of aces." He serenaded while putting the Armadodo card in the very centre of the board, leaving one space to the left that could barely be exploited.

Seifer smiled wickedly. "Everyone believes I am brash and out of line." He countered before slamming the Ruby Dragon card into the final space. "But I was way ahead of you." Seifer continued while flipping the Chimera and Death Claw cards, the Same ruling giving him the necessary combo to steal the match. "Better let me take your Elnoyle, it's mine now."

Cid smiled as he picked up the card and handed it over. "Magnificent, I wish we had played much earlier." Quickly the former headmaster began shuffling his cards. "You have a decent set there, do the other prisoners duel with you?"

Seifer nodded. "Not often, but some guys from the next cell play when we have detox time. Even though no one is on anything."

Cid nodded. "Prisoners used to always be doped up, the jails became cleaner about twenty years go. Play again?" Seifer nodded and prepared for his first move.

Cid nodded. "She has trained with them for the last four months and they like how responsive she is, the iron discipline she learned from the committee in particular stands her in good stead."

"Whoa..." He announced while picking up a card that represented the fabled king of Tonberry's and strategically placed it in the top left corner of the triad square. In silence they began their next game when Seifer saw the timer counting down towards ten. Gazing at the hand he realised that this was his only chance to get the one person he trusted into the game.

"I am glad for her." He announced, surprising the former headmaster with the switch as he laid a low level card in an unprotected place.

"She'll be happy." Cid replied, out of words, Seifer appeared to switch completely. The sudden empathy and joy he could put down to gamesmanship, but an easy steal? Seifer had to have a plan, carefully he played defensive, aiming to get the numbers far apart for a difficult same play. "It's proof new leaves can be turned over."

"You keep telling me to try, but my beloved Commander is too good a rival." Seifer retorted as he slotted another card in the open, leaving him open for a move from Cid to steal the match. As Cid grabbed at his cards, Seifer slyly slipped something under the first card he played.

"I am pleased Seifer, it'd be good to go fishing in Centra sometime." Cid cut in as he placed the final card and sealed an easy win, seconds later the klaxon for the visit's end sounded.

"Tell everyone I'm feeling better, one day I hope to join you in that challenge." Seifer replied tactfully before placing his hand tight behind his back, less than a heartbeat later the guard had slipped the thick cuffs on the wrists and led him away.

Cid was nervous as he had slipped the Tonberry King card into his deck; this was not the Seifer he knew. The arrogant youth had suddenly turned; Kadowaki had warned him that the exposure of magic might have caused a fissure to form in his mind that could trigger him from one extreme to the other in seconds. Today, he had witnessed that with his own eyes.

The former Headmaster kept his silence as the elevator ride went on. It was best that he kept his concerns to himself, the last thing he needed was to give the guards a reason to start going after him. Especially since Seifer had shown such progress in their earlier meetings. So the ride went on until at last Cid had been escorted from the edge of the prison to the waiting vehicle Caraway had ordered.

As the door opened a wind caught the edge of his deck and dislodged a piece of white paper he had not seen before. Swiftly he grabbed the item from the floor before slotting into the soft leather seats of the limousine. He watched as the blacked out windows rose upwards and blocked out prying eyes, satisfied that no one could see, Cid flipped the paper open and read it swiftly.

_"Something is going on in here. I overhead two guys talking about the past coming back and the rule they wanted to begin soon. During the detox sessions I have been getting closer to them, probing at what they're up to. Looks like there's some major challenge to the treaty rising up. All I know is something called 'Eidolon'. I haven't told anyone else; you're the only guy I trust. Don't let me down by blabbing about this to anyone around here! Get a message to Garden; I'm going to go deeper to find out more. Same plan next time, give me seven days."_

The note ended abruptly with no signature, but he knew who the writer had been. Seifer had switched himself around, now he was attempting to prove himself. Everyone else would write it off as some ploy to get out, but Cid believed him. Everyone had a second chance.

"Don't let me down either." He whispered as the car drifted towards the distant city.

--

_"_Heaven's open." The voice called into the receiver.

_"Angels fly."_ The other voice responded swiftly.

"What is the situation there?"

_"The communication between our Commander and the President has got everyone over the edge. All the SeeD's have been whispering rumours at each other, Galbadia has also got in on the act. Caraway contacted the Commander only for him to stand his ground."_

"Excellent news; this is the type of scenario that we wanted."

_"What of the aircraft? Has that been covered up?"_ The traitor questioned swiftly.

"The general has not found any footage of the craft taking off; as we are aiming. Esthar and Garden will have a collision course. As the entire treaty becomes fragile all peace will be off, and our true plan can begin. I have already ordered the drive to get moving."

_"I trust that I shall get the control I want?"_ The voice asked suddenly.

"Just stay loyal to the Adellone project and you'll get all the rewards you want and more. Don't let us down! Out." Instantly the call on the satellite device died, all the pieces were falling into place; the game was coming to an end...

--

The craft coasted slowly to shore fifteen miles north of Dollet. Warily they had watched their surroundings before they disembarked. Sirena had taken point with her long staff, silently she crouched on her knees behind a large boulder, her hands signalling for them to follow. Behind her, Irvine ran with his gun arm levelled, while Dychestra had his knives unsheathed in his palms. The trio scanned the horizon before pulling the black face masks off and discarding them.

"Dollet is neutral, they don' wanna get involved in some war," Irvine began. "There's this nice bar here with card games and beer; let's lay low there for a while." His recruits nodded and they followed his lead.

Fifteen minutes later, Irvine had seated himself at large table. His worn poncho was rolled away into a side bag; instead he wore a plain white shirt and black trousers combo, his eyes concealed by dark sunglasses. He was sat on the left hand side of a table that curved like a teardrop. Four other men sat in place to his right, while opposite a woman wearing a strange plastic cap began flicking cards repeatedly.

"You all know the rules; minimum 100 gil bet, raise as high as the pot goes. We play hold 'em style. Flop, turn and river, you all with me?" The five men nodded.

At the bar behind him, Dychestra had unfolded the small micro-computer. Carefully he tapped into the wireless network and accessed the Garden sub-server but a second later he was thrown out and an ancient chemical symbol filled the screen for three seconds before he was back at the start screen. He searched the news sites but found no mention of the group, or the attack on them to the north. So far, then their existence was off the map. Shutting the computer down he relaxed with a cold drink, watchful over the Captain that began to mingle with the local gamblers.

--

Doctor Kadowaki slugged the glass back and felt the ice cold water crash against her throat, the three highly caffeinated pills falling towards her stomach at a visceral rate. Three days had passed and two SeeD members hovered on the edge of death. She couldn't take it anymore, the whole thing was a nightmare, and no movie could ever have created such a tense and mortal situation.

She wished that there was something she could do, something that could stop the virus. She tried to carry out an autopsy again, but the fluids had dissolved all frame of the carcass. It was like watching matter disintegrate; nothing but an empty space was left in its wake. Her eyes feasted upon the doctor she had condemned to death by asking him to carry out CPR. But, like the mountain rescue team, he wasn't deteriorating or showing signs of symptom. He was merely tired from the drugs that the team had pumped through the IV to keep him from trying to commit suicide again.

"I can't take it!" She screamed as she launched a large container across her office. She slipped into her seat, ignoring the sound of the concert that was happening merely yards from her. No students had been dragged through, the biometric scanners showed no sign of infection. It was all so baffling, she would have believed that Zell's group had somehow been victim of an assassination had it not been for the fact that the Shumi tribe were no more.

"Doctor..." The voice called suddenly, Kadowaki sighed and turned to face the suited medical staff member. "You need to sleep; the whole thing is getting to you," the friendly voice of Xu overlapped.

Kadowaki shook her head. "I can't stop; something has to be causing this, there has to be something that can stop it. Chaos theory suggests that if a butterfly flaps its wings in one half of the world, a tornado could happen in the other. But I refuse to believe it! Everything has to have a logical beginning and ending. However they got infected has to be figured out."

"But the infection hasn't taken anyone else." Xu added.

Kadowaki nodded. "Exactly! I have known only one thing like it and that is cancer; a disease that killed one person but wouldn't be transmitted in an airborne way. This disease is different; it has killed an entire tribe and has nearly killed Zell's entire group. But a doctor who did CPR is showing no signs and neither are mountain rescue members who brought the team back. There must be something..." She stopped mid-sentence, instantly something hit her.

"What is it?" Xu asked pleadingly.

"Get the doctor who admitted the patients in here with footage of it. Tell him I want it in the highest resolution possible. I have a theory and if true it could end the threat of airborne infection!" Xu darted off swiftly and Kadowaki whispered a prayer to Hyne. A few minutes later, the SeeD returned with the doctor in tow.

"Ma'am." The anonymous Doctor began, "what brought this on?"

"Play the tape and with any luck you'll see why." The three Garden staff watched as the footage of the SeeD's being wheeled in came to light. All the bodies were drenched in blood, open wounds releasing the gore like a leaking pipe. The three members steeled themselves as Kadowaki's team instantly gave the patients bed baths and did all they could to stem the bleeding.

"What were you looking for?" The Doctor asked.

"Do you have the footage of the CPR incident?" Kadowaki asked nervously.

The man's face blanched but he nodded. "Yes... But why?"

"Play it." Kadowaki ordered, throughout it all Xu had remained silent; the Doctor had said nothing to her. It was like she was watching some ancient detective show where the protagonist figured the whole thing out due to one inconspicuous movement.

On screen the Doctor blew air into the patient's mouth and raised his head once done, the mouth was completely dry. The three figures watched, even witnessing the moment Kadowaki ordered the figure to be quarantined.

"Order a meeting Xu, and Doctor get this footage up there. I think we are ready to break our silence!" Instantly the pair got to work, the Doctor's revelation still an unknown quantity.

--

He awoke with the morning and stood guard over Vascaroon. All night he had been sweating at the realisation of the whole thing; somehow he was in Esthar, but he had no clue how he got here let alone to this specific time. It was almost as if he had somehow been sucked into the past, a thought he would have dismissed had he not been a survivor of time compression.

But even though he had survived a fusion of time, it still didn't explain how he had got here. Ultimecia had been killed and, according to Squall, her powers were passed on to Edea a long time ago. So he doubted she'd have sucked him back; even if she did, why had she engineered this fantasy that he was living out? As the days rolled on he had realised how it was like some drama series where he had a task to accomplish.

Yet, he couldn't figure out what it was that he needed to do. Vascaroon had gone on at length with the other Generals about how the evil Hyne had been taking their children and the duties that he expected from his army. It creeped Zell out quite a lot; he'd watched many horror movies and one of his favourites had featured aliens. They were a race who kidnapped people and replaced them with their own species hidden inside a replica host. What Hyne was doing in the north sounded eerily similar and it made Zell puke.

As he looked over the cliff, he saw the many boats bobbling on the waves of the Great Salt Lake. The plan had been simple; the great mouth at the edge provided a perfect natural boundary. The armies would sail on separate ships for all the coasts of the mainland ahead. None knew of the secret diversion that Vascaroon and Zell were going to make. Just one more day and Zell figured that he would get closer to the end of this living nightmare.

During a brief training session earlier in the morning he had found himself repeating his grandfather's mantras. As he did, he noticed a weird buzzing sound emanate from his chest. At first he'd freaked out, thinking that he'd hurt himself during the exercises, but the buzzing subsided, with only a faint soothing voice that urged him to fight on. It was as if someone was calling out to him, trying to guide him home. The fact that a soul waited out there had been enough to spur him on.

"Are you ready for your revenge?" Vascaroon asked quickly.

Zell gave a deep bow. "Ready when you are, my lord." The warrior replied tactfully.

Vascaroon nodded. "That is good. The army grows restless; I do not blame them. The people have feared war ever since Hyne's powers were first revealed. The man became twisted and disjointed; it was like a tree that had been hit by lightning. Fifteen years ago he vanished to the northern islands. In the last two years he has taken fifty of our young."

"He's a cold hearted bastard!" Zell snarled in reply.

"Your ire runs deep Zell; do not let it distract you from your task. You know what we must do." Zell bowed silently. "But it will not be an easy task; Hyne will have his strongest creations and powers at his side. Our prospects for survival are bleak."

"Heart failure or in the front line?" Zell asked with a sly grin.

Vascaroon winked. "Your promise has not been dimmed man of SeeD. Come, we have much preparation to do."

Zell followed the strange leader into his pavilion. All the while his eyes scanned the clouds, looking for the face that had called out to him...

--

As she had asked, the high members of the Garden had gathered in the conference room. Squall announced that President Laguna had done a video brief with his general to say that their aircraft hadn't taken off from the bases. He had also talked of how he didn't buy it but for now Garden would take their word as gospel until new intelligence arrived. Once he was done, Kadowaki took the floor; her plump and tired figure looked rejuvenated after the video footage she had seen in the infirmary.

"I think I know how this happened; I also think we are safe to break quarantine," she began, an announcement that brought shocked gasps from all gathered. "Watch."

The seven figures watched the footage of everything from the wheel in of the patients to the near fatal kiss of life attempted by the orderly; a moment that had brought widespread condemnation from the gathered. The plump matron weathered the criticism and angry yells of the Garden not being safe while such suicidal quarantine breaches were happening. For five minutes the maelstrom raged before calm slowly filtered back in and she felt the control of the meeting return to her.

"I appreciate what you all say, and it is something I ate myself up over for many hours. But this moment is what made me realise why the threat is not as serious as we believe. What did you all notice about the patients when first admitted?" She asked swiftly.

"They were all bleeding badly?" Selphie replied tentatively.

Kadowaki nodded. "Exactly; now as you have seen we bed bathed them and since then, the wounds have not bled at all. It was something I never noticed, but look closely." She commanded as the footage of the orderly giving CPR played again. This time, she freeze-framed it as he moved from the corpse's lips. "Look closely."

Barely a second later Quistis gasped. "The mouth; it's blue! There's no blood circulation there!"

Kadowaki nodded again. "I've checked the other patients; some have lips that are nearing that phase. It could be a sign of the body being at the end of the symptoms. The point is that the orderly did not touch the blood of the infected, and he hasn't contracted the disease. Selphie's concert has been a huge calming effect, but also the scanners showed no one had contracted it since the admittance of the infected team. The men who brought them in have also not begun to show signs of infection."

Squall rose from his chair. "Have you checked these patients fully?"

Kadowaki nodded. "Toxicology is showing nothing. I don't recommend we suddenly allow visitors to the infirmary, but I see no reason for us to be dark any longer."

"It would be a huge boost to morale for the students!" Selphie added. "People can let families know they are ok and everything."

"Not only that, but we could begin to get outside help," Rinoa added. "Some of the scientists in Esthar could..." She was cut off by screaming from Selphie before Squall ordered silence.

"Rinoa's right; we can use this to our advantage. Esthar seems to be hiding; I'm not sure how involved they are. But a face to face meeting might break the deadlock. Order the Ragnarok to be readied, we are going to Esthar!"

"What?" Quistis asked in shock.

"I'm serious. Sail for Centra, from there Rinoa, myself and Selphie will continue on to Esthar while the Garden follows by sea. We need to get into the game properly." He suddenly heard his communicator go off. Bemused, he placed it on the conference speaker. "You're on with the Garden Committee. Report Kramer," Squall ordered.

_"Is this a secure line?"_ The question cut in suddenly.

"It is encoded with the highest level of encryption." A surprised Xu responded.

_"I visited Seifer Almasy at the D-District Prison today. Towards the end he slipped a piece of paper to me that suggests that the peace treaty is in danger,"_ The former headmaster announced.

"What could he possibly know about danger to the peace treaty?" Rinoa announced with a huff.

_"I know of your past feud Rinoa, but I believe him in this. Apparently some prisoners have been talking of an old rule coming back under a plan codenamed 'eidolon'."_ Instantly the whole room fell silent, for a nervous thirty seconds nothing was said. _"Commander, are you still there?"_

"Yes we are. Adellone is the name that a few SeeD's were operating under on a mission to the north. One from which they came back infected with a retro virus... Seifer honestly believes something is going on in that prison?" Squall asked swiftly; he got over his shock quickly.

_"He told me to give him two days, what he intends to find out I have no idea but he seems sincere enough. I think he is establishing a cover, hence his overblown anger towards the treaty."_

"It sounds convincing. We'll run with it, but he's on his own inside the prison, we can't risk blowing his cover wide open by sending in the cavalry. Keep us updated." The transmission cut out swiftly. "I think that this is our proof that Esthar isn't responsible for the attack on Irvine's crew. Xu, the word Master Kramer used sounded different to the name of Zell's team, go over the audio and find out what the word was. Report back with anything you find by cross referencing the databanks. In the meantime we need to find out what info Esthar has. Set a course for Centra, we're going to the city of the future."

Nida responded to the command and Balamb Garden arced towards the south.


End file.
